Get A Life

Wednesday, 18 July: At home to write a piece for the New Statesman. The article comes out on the 30th of July. They are doing an issue on “My London”, so I took the opportunity to talk about the importance of art, how I have engaged with it since I came to London when I was 17. London is the greatest city in the world for high culture. The article appears in this week’s magazine. Continue reading →

Vivienne and Andreas have climbed one of the towers to overlook Lucca

Wednesday, 11 July : Rosita and Paola have a company in Prato, an old town near to Florence. They produce our Gold Label. The company is a studio which does more than manufacture and dispatch but helps from the start of the collection, e.g. helping us source and develop fabrics and yarns and we work step by step with them through our assistants, sending emails and patterns and samples to be copied. Continue reading →

Our pattern cutters are working on the patterns and sample toiles created last week by Iris and Andreas and bringing them a stage closer to finish, so Andreas and I carry on with Q v Q*. Then on Friday afternoon Andreas and I work together trying to put outfits together for Gold Label – of course this brings us nearer to deciding which fabrics to use. We do this again at work on Sunday. Continue reading →

The Tate Britain has made a series of films in which some of their supporters were asked to talk about two works of art in the collection that say “This is Britain”. You can see Vivienne’s choices here.If you would like to watch the whole series, please go to http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/britain.

Vivienne writes longhand, Cynthia types and Joe puts it on the web.
This is Joe, I’ve had a wonderful holiday in Fuerteventura and this is why the blog is late. Sorry. Just want to tell you about my little son Joe who at 18 months is sliding headfirst down the slide into the pool, fearless and totally happy.

Tuesday, 26 June:  Yoga. Iris (brilliant guest pattern maker) is here and Andreas is working with her. I do two big interviews which take all day – one for Bloomberg TV’s “Eye2Eye” programme, another for “Kulturmontag” on Austrian TV. I only do interviews if I can talk about climate change – and how the role of the Art Lover is tied in with it, can help stop it. Nevertheless, people want to interview me primarily because I’m a fashion designer (Bloomberg needed footage of me and our couture in Davies Street), though of course by now they are also interested in the mix: fashion designer/activist. Continue reading →

I have left it too long to go back over everyday details and I shall limit the diary to the most important events.

One morning before work I finished my book, “The Story of the Stone”, an 18^th century Chinese classic by Cao Xueqin in five volumes. When the goddess repaired the sky, one vast stone was left, unused and rejected. The stone had magical properties and the story of its life was written upon it. It shrank itself down to the size of a fan pendant and our hero was born with this magic jade in his mouth. He is the stone incarnate; his name, Bao Yu, means “Precious Jade”. Continue reading →

Andras Schiff plays Mozart

Monday-Tuesday, 11-12 June: On each day, I spent half a day going to the dentist. Advice on how to clean your teeth: keep your gums healthy by aiming your brush under the gum and use those little twizzly brushes to clean between the teeth and up into the gum. Try to visit a hygienist for cleaning twice a year – ask your dentist. This way you will keep your teeth.

Wrote up the diary. Made three decisions re Gold Label. Continue reading →

Canterbury

Wednesday, 6 June: 6.45 – 8.00 am, transition time between holiday time, reading and going back to work – spent looking up words in the dictionary. Then 30 minutes Yoga – on my own at home (Teacher Tom’s away). At work 11.00 am, talked strategy to Cynthia. Cynthia, as most of you know, works together with me on everything to do with climate Change and manages this blog (and website). After lunch, Cynthia went to a discussion about Julian Assange’s TV interview series, ‘The World Tomorrow’ (www.rt.com/news) where he bravely interviews people not seen on mainstream TV (including Ecuadorian President, Raphael Correa, former Guantanamo prisoners, Tunisian President, Moncef Marzouki and other prominent Arab Spring leaders). I had to get on with Gold Label which I’ve have been dangerously neglecting. Continue reading →

Monday, 28 May: Stayed at home all day until 5.00 writing up this diary. I meant to write it yesterday but didn’t and each morning I can’t seem to find the time to do it day by day. But at the moment the pressure for designing the Gold Label Collection is off because technical work has been delegated (It’s going to hit again soon.) And I like writing this diary. It marks the time so the days don’t all merge into one. Continue reading →

Monday, 21 May: Weather glorious. Left home at 8 am with Cynthia for Google’s Zeitgeist conference at the Grove Hotel in Herefordshire (about an hour outside London) – due to talk in the early afternoon. We went early to get an idea of what the conference was about. The audience was mainly Google advertisers and employees – people with a lot of money and influence. Continue reading →