Why Vivienne Westwood supports Scottish independence – even though she's English

The Derbyshire-born punk designer has used her London fashion week show to endorse the Yes vote. It’s the latest in a long list of causes she has embraced on and off the catwalk

Vivienne Westwood poses with a Scottish flag backstage before the presentation of her collection. Photograph: SUZANNE PLUNKETT/REUTERS 

Though she was born in Tintwistle – a Derbyshire village that sounds as English as a Beatrix Potter character – fashion’s pre-eminent septuagenarian punk, Vivienne Westwood, has used her London fashion week catwalk to support Scottish independence.
In the most stylish endorsement for Alex Salmond’s campaign yet, Westwood sent models down the catwalk wearing “Yes” badges on Sunday afternoon and distributed a statement headed “Democracy in the UK” to journalists and buyers, its title spelt out in punk-style newspaper cut out letters. The note spoke of Westwood’s desire for a win for the Yes campaign: “It could be the turning point towards a better world. They could lead by example.”
“Scottish Independence could be a great day for Democracy,” it read. “They already have a more democratic financial system, eg no tuition fees, and they care more for people. They just wouldn’t do what we’re doing in England ... In England there is hardly any democracy left. The government does what it wants. That which should belong to people – it gives it all to business.”

A model shows Vivienne Westwood’s SS15 Red Label collection. 

Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA 

Later, Westwood told reporters: “I hate England … I like Scotland because somehow I think they are better than we are. They are more democratic.” She described the Better Together campaign as “frightened and stupid”.
Westwood is a master of using her profile in the fashion industry to make political statements. In 2008, her models walked the catwalk holding placards with slogans including “Fair trial my arse”’ in reference to the incarceration of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. She has protested against fracking and climate change, too, and has worn a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “I’m Julian Assange”’ to visit the WikiLeaks founder at the Ecuadorian Embassy. Her current glossy magazine advertisements feature the tagline “Leonard Peltier is innocent”, in support of an Indian activist imprisoned in the 1970s, whom she cited as the inspiration for her spring/summer 2011 collection.

Vivienne Westwood’s Red Label show in 2008. Photograph: 

Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Though she is not Scottish, Westwood also has history with tartan, famously creating her own pattern and clan for her 1993 Anglomania collection. The “Westwood MacAndreas” – named after her third husband, Andreas Kronthaler - is now officially registered as a Scottish tartan.

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