This is our Christmas card, back and front. Back: we gave this idea to Greenpeace, who campaign against Shell – oil spill in the Arctic causes black snow. They made a short film of it. Super. Front: Leslie Winer in our ‘Save the Arctic’ vest.
Zheng Sixiao (1241–1318), Ink Orchid. I’m sure each leaf was done with one stroke of the brush.
He was reverential, intelligent, accomplished and thoughtful – naturally and without effort. He was sincerely courteous, and capable of all complaisance. The display of these qualities reached to the four extremities of the empire, and extended from earth to heaven. He was able able to make the able and virtuous distinguished, and thence proceeded to the love of the nine classes of his kindred, who all became harmonious. He also regulated and polished the people of his domain, who all became brightly intelligent. Finally, he united and harmonised the myriad States of the empire; and lo! the black haired people were transformed. The result was universal concord.
I find this incredible. I’ve never heard anything like it. Think of Homer’s Iliad, one of the West’s earliest mythical stories (c.1200 BC) – it’s mostly a catalogue of gory details of how heroes killed each other.
By the time of the Tang dynasty (c.600–900 AD), the scholars (literati) administered the country. There was no state religion, though religion was tolerated – no religious liars as in the West. The scholar-painters were either administrators who painted in their spare time or professionals. What I love about them is that they lived by the Confucian ethic. They had pride in living an honourable life; this made them true to themselves, they lived up to their own standards. Painting was a means of telling the truth, it affirmed and reflected back to them their own value in living the best life possible to them. Often the subject was a personal metaphor representing individual circumstances. This is really clear when circumstances changed dramatically as when the Mongols overthrew the Song dynasty (the Mongol dynasty is named Yuan and lasted from 1271–1368).
Zheng Sixiao was a man of exceptional literary talent and was on the way to high office when the dynasty fell. He refused an invitation to serve at the Yuan court and as a yimin (leftover subject) remained loyal to the fallen Song. He retired to a monastery. He wrote many poems raging against Yuan rule, which he collected in an anthology called History of the Heart, sealed in an iron box and threw into a well at a temple. They were discovered 350 years later when the well ran dry. He painted the orchid over and over again to express his bitter feelings – elegant and fluid, without roots (which show above ground in the orchid). When asked about this he replied, ‘The soil has been taken by the foreigners. Can you bear it?’ He wrote in the poem accompanying the orchid in the exhibition: ‘I opened my nostrils before making the painting, And there, floating everywhere in the sky, is the antique fragrance undying.’
Until the twentieth century progress was a concept unthought of by the Chinese, as it still was to us at the time of Elizabeth I. The concept runs parallel with the emerging aggressive trade of the seventeenth century and locks in with the Industrial Revolution. What is progress then but the art of war and aggressive trade? And it brought climate change. The only progress is in the art of living. I just hope the human race can survive. Growth is nothing to do with us – only for banks, business and governments. In my company, I want to expand less but still make beautiful clothes.
TUES 24 DEC FATHER CHRISTMAS FOREVER
These are the stamps on my friend Frank’s latest letter. Father Christmas Forever. Frank crossed it out. Santa is part of our national identity. Every country owns him – and it’s important to our rulers that we believe in him just as we believe the propaganda that the world will carry on as normal. Well, ‘normal’ means death. Not only will Father Christmas die but so will our whole way of life.
I’m at home writing up this diary for December. I think it’s cool to write the diary after the events – the events are just as important to me now as the original experience, in fact it’s a bonus to live them again. And it’s in keeping with the Climate Revolution website; our news doesn’t switch from one thing to another like the daily media. We hold onto our facts and our aims.
A note on the Arctic 30: my guess is that Putin painted himself into a corner with their arrest. Whether they were convicted or freed on the charges that were brought against them it would have been bad. He had to free them – and quick – because of the coming Winter Olympics. They are not Russian so there is more international pressure. Therefore, to cover up, he freed the Russian oil tycoon and the girls from Pussy Riot (fucking brave, aren’t they just?) as well.
2014
JANUARY 2014
WEDS 1 JAN CHRISTMAS READING – AND FRACKING
A quiet Christmas at home – just Andreas and I. We sometimes went for a walk on Clapham Common – love the time of year especially at twilight time when the weather is miserable, then back to a warm home. He pops out more than me, sometimes to work, though there was no one else there. Andreas was reading a biography of Bernard Berenson, the art historian. He told me a bit about him. How he began by travelling in Italy, looking at art in churches, in homes and public collections and became an authority, authenticating for dealers and buyers in the exodus of European art to America. In particular, Berenson advised the rich widow, Isabella Stewart Gardner, who built a Boston gallery to house her acquisitions. Berenson made money, too, and housed his famous collection of art books in his villa, I Tatti, overlooking Florence. He was one of the models for Swann in Proust’s novel. Swann fell in love with his mistress, Odette, because she looked like a Botticelli.
I was reading my beloved Chinese Masterpieces catalogue and going through my papers. I don’t use a computer, which I realise must be convenient for storing information. Instead, I sorted through piles of papers – photocopies of articles copied from the internet by Cynthia. I re-read them and keep only the most important ones.
Me in my old flat, around the time of the Buffalo Girls collection, just back from working in Italy. The poster is Botticelli’s Primavera from the Uffizi gallery.
I have been reading John Pilger’s books and articles since 1986 when he published Heroes. Its section on the Vietnam war – the lengths America went to in order to impose supremacy, to establish world hegemony – and create hell – is beyond belief, beyond the imagination of the Devil.
John is the same age as me. At forty-five I already had a good grasp of global politics and reading Heroes everything fell into place. John had learnt so much by direct contact with the reality of world events; he had done so much.
In Heroes, John says: ‘As Chomsky has pointed out, American policy was never concerned with Vietnam alone America is supposed to have lost the war in Vietnam. But they achieved their aims; the threat was that Vietnam would have a more communistic financial model instead of the model of capitalism – and that other Asian countries might copy it. ‘Far from being vanquished in South-East Asia, the US has devastated, blockaded and isolated Vietnam and its “viruses” and has subordinated to American interests almost every regime in the region.’ One thing we need to know – the world is run for cheap labour; the American interest and capitalism has since been able to exploit this densely populated region, especially Indonesia.
On New Year’s Eve I woke up about 2.30 a.m. I was thinking: Climate Revolution is working with NGOs, activist groups, organisations and individuals to prevent fracking in the UK; together we will draft a letter as the first step in informing the public of the facts. I worry that despite David Cameron saying nothing would go ahead without fair discussion, what we hear from the government is that it’s all going ahead: licences have already been issued and more are in the offing. Everything I’ve heard the government say is untrue. They want to allow this infrastructure, with its hundreds of test wells, at the risk of ruining our soil, water and our beautiful countryside, so companies and their investors can make a profit. They are locked into destruction. But there is so much opportunity now for cheap green energy.
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nbsp; WEDS 8 JAN ANTI-FRACKING MEETING
To Curtain Road, Old Street, to a photographic studio. When we began our business in the ’70s, I spent three days a week driving over London to outworkers. I cut the clothes and took them to machinists; I made the knitting patterns and took the wool to the handknitters; and I went to Greek artisans delivering materials to get tailoring and shoes made. In Curtain Road I visited a trimmings merchant, an enormous warehouse filled from floor to ceiling with treasures. Nowadays we choose trimmings from brochures or send our own designs to companies, usually in Italy and not open to custom from the street. This now was where I did my photos for an interview with Deborah Orr in The Gentlewoman. The photographer, Alasdair McLellan, and stylist, Jonathan Kaye, were nice and clever. I enjoyed myself.
Then at 3 p.m. I went on to my son Joe’s in Amwell Street to meet the anti-fracking groups. The role of Climate Revolution, with the help of Joe, has been to try to get the various activist groups together. People liked the idea of using the fact, ‘the government is behaving irresponsibly’. We discussed the main content of our letter. It’s good. Most importantly, it demands the government stop until all our questions have been answered (we will refute their claims). The people we’re working with are really impressive regarding the organisation they have in place to physically protest; and we all rely on the climate activists in the camps to keep the focus of the protests.
FRI 10 JAN MILAN FOR THE MENSWEAR SHOW
Andreas and I go to Milan for the preparation and presentation of our menswear collection. The show is on Sunday, and all next week in our Italian showrooms we will begin selling our collections, except Gold Label, to our buyers and to our own shops. Selling then continues in London, Paris and Los Angeles. There are a lot of people in our Italian building. I concentrate on the unisex knitwear, making sure it looks good and making improvements for the production. I also looked at Red Label which had just arrived. I was, in general, pleased. I want the woman who chooses to wear this collection to look looked-after, warm, adventurous, important and artistic. I left it to Andreas to get on with the MAN collection, styling and casting, with Georg, to whom we gave a lot of freedom to design this season and who worked so hard. The show looked good. I interview on anti-fracking.
This outfit at our Milan menswear show used the CC snakes and a jacquard.
WEDS 15 JAN MAKE ECOCIDE A CRIME
Home from Italy yesterday. This morning I’m on a boat moored near Blackfriars Bridge, for a 10 a.m. press conference where I will speak on ‘ecocide’. This is how it happened: The concept of ecocide has been around since the 1970s. Making ecocide a crime against peace was examined within the UN for decades from the 1970s to 1990s. It was shelved at the last minute in 1996 without being put to the vote and despite a number of countries objecting to its exclusion. Polly Higgins, a UK lawyer and an advocate for making ecocide a crime against peace, picked up the idea in 2010, judging that people would again be responsive to it. Her proposed amendment to the Rome Statute reads: ‘Ecocide is the extensive damage to, destruction of, or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been or will be severely diminished.’
Polly gave a talk, after which Prisca Merz, director of ‘End Ecocide in the UK’, offered to help Climate Revolution in any way she could. It is still only a small organisation but they are doing awfully well. They had a mock trial that found two oil company CEOs guilty on indictments of ecocide of Canada’s Athabasca tar sands – an event live-streamed by Sky News. Leading QCs Michael Mansfield and Chris Parker and their teams of lawyers fought for and against the indictments. Although the CEOs were actors and the companies fictional, the evidence was real.
The launch was well attended and reported by the press – and the movement has a real chance of concrete result.
SAT 18 JAN KATE MOSS’S 40TH BIRTHDAY
Andreas and I went to Kate Moss’s 40th birthday party out in the Cotswolds. I enjoyed myself so much. I’m so busy that I see these friends rarely. My old friend Chrissie Hynde (we once went everywhere together), and I do like Sadie Frost and her mum (I must invite them to the Red Label show, inspired by a collection Sadie first modelled in sixteen years ago), Stella McCartney, and Rifat Ozbek (he did the decor – psychedelic). And, of course, Kate herself. ‘Hello!’ I’ve said it before, her voice is so sexy and intimate. Everything she says sounds like a conspiracy (to do what? One day I must find out). And then there was Naomi! Andreas loves her. She really is a goddess – she behaves like one, she makes things move.
MON 20 JAN JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET
Another dear friend, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, world-famous pianist. Andreas and I bike to the Wigmore Hall after work where Jean-Yves and mezzo soprano Angelika Kirchlager are in concert together. I love the Wigmore Hall and the concert. We’re so lucky. Jean-Yves is sweeter than ever. It’s not only his super-talent that makes him a star but because he is also so endearingly nice – and fun. We were all together with his friend Paul.
TUES 21 JAN ANDY GOTTS’S PHOTOS
Tizer and I bike over to Somerset House after work to see the photographic exhibition of stars who have been nominated for BAFTAs – supposed to be the biggest collection of film stars in one place – by Andy Gotts. We want to thank Andy because he has been taking photos of celebrities wearing the ‘Save the Arctic’ T-shirt we designed for Greenpeace.
THURS 30 JAN A BRIEFING ON FRACKING
Jamie and Tisha come to give us a briefing on fracking, so that we are truly armed with the facts. We will demolish the government’s misinformation and win the fight.
9 of Andy Gotts’ Save the Arctic photos: top row – Sadie Frost, Stella McCartney, Julian Assange; middle row – Pamela Anderson, Sharon Osbourne, Sienna Miller; bottom row – George Clooney, Andreas Kronthaler, Tracey Emin.
How clean is fracking? The one thing I keep hearing is that fracking is somehow clean/cleaner, that it will cause less pollution than other fuels. Lord Browne, former CEO of BP and now chairman of the shale gas company Cuadrilla, advises the government and is promoting an assumption that it is clean. He makes it feel like it’s our duty, telling us on the news that it’s a ‘national imperative’. If you assume things often enough people will start to believe it. Tisha says we still don’t know which is worse, coal or fracking. The University of Minnesota is working on this, comparing it to coal (coal combustion being the worst polluter on earth) and they have yet to come to a decision; it’s difficult to choose between them.
I find it interesting that fracking is now not an option in Germany. There has been such an improvement in insulating homes and businesses that gas consumption has gone down to the extent that companies cannot make a profit. In some cases of new houses built with passive insulation and air-sealing, energy bills are really small; the home is kept warm by body heat and normal cooking and baking.
I also think it’s good to know the real story of America’s energy boom from shale gas; they don’t need their coal but are exporting it at a cheap price. The story is that it is short-term economy. Anything short term is bad for the planet. The US is a country with vast areas of low population but with over 80,000 fracking wells operated by different companies, competing and selling cheap. The reports are that the useful life of a well is three to five years. So, new drilling is unlimited in a frenzy of ‘make money while you can’. Now the peak is probably past and the damage has not been accounted for.
I am happy to know Jamie and Tisha, such fine people – she having changed her career to focus on what she considers most important. Jamie is passionately supportive of his friends in the climate camp at Barton Moss. His friend Kris O’Donnell had live streaming from his phone when the police came for him. They broke the bone around his eye socket and the picture of his muddy, bleeding face went all over the internet. There are other incidents of police aggression at Barton Moss and Jamie told how one night the police raided the camp und
er the pretext that someone had seen a flare go up and turfed everyone out of the tents and into the rain and trampled their bedding and possessions into the sludge. These people are so important to our campaign to save the planet.
I’m sorry that the police were so aggressive. I thought things had got better since the 1960s and ’70s when we went on demos. People then called the police ‘pigs’ and we glared at them with enmity. Since then the attitude of the public has changed; neither police nor people are so respectful of governments. So, I don’t think the police are as anti-people as they were, especially now that jobs are harder to get. I think of the police in general as having a job to do and that means keeping the peace and they should be protecting people’s right to peaceful demonstration.
FRI 31 JAN POSTCARDS FROM THE FRONTLINE
I met Lily Cole and Lorna Tucker at Selfridges for an event organised by the Environmental Justice Foundation. Steve Trent is the NGO’s founder and its current task is to send ‘Postcards from the Frontline’ to Ban Ki-moon asking for UN recognition of the plight of climate refugees. We show the Red Shoes film and then we three women answer questions. Steve is the moderator. Lily is a very affectionate woman; she is always pleased to see me.
FEBRUARY 2014
SAT 1 FEB FLOODS AND THE UKRAINE CRISIS
I have been busy with fashion – which is why this diary has got rather late – and it is just too much for me to tell of all the preparation of two collections and two shows, one after the other. I liked them a lot and I’ll tell a bit about them later on. While we were working away the main news topics in the wide world were flooding in England (which everyone now accepts as a symptom of climate change) and the crisis in the Ukraine. According to present political policies there is only intermittent solution to conflict, no end to perpetual war. Putin’s a macho thug, a criminal, and don’t let’s forget that his people planted explosives in the basement of flats and killed Russian civilians so they could blame the Chechnyans. He spreads terror whilst trying to develop his own personality cult. The Americans spread global terror but they manage to cover this up to most of the people in their own country.
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