Martin kept the calf tied away from its mother – this was her first baby and he doesn’t trust her; she’s funny and once chased some hikers and he can’t let her out anymore. I don’t mind if the calf is separated from her mother because they get distressed if they are separated after they have bonded. I saw that the cow standing next to the mother was licking the mother clean. It’s an intuitive response. It’s the first time I have seen any animal born. I’m glad she’s a girl because little bulls have a very short life. Within five minutes she was trying to stand. He’s called her Vivienne.
I’m stupid. We would have had the best photo the diary’s ever had but I never thought of getting someone to do it – I, myself, never take photos, I don’t have a mobile phone. Gregor says the next time a cow calves he’ll try to arrange one.
Unusually for the time of year the weather is terrible. We can’t see anything; we are in cloud and the rain is constant, like strings sheeting down; sometimes we have storms with thunder and lightning around the chalet, sometimes hail. This lasts more or less until the end of Thursday. Andreas managed one short walk during a break in the clouds. Miraculously, every night the clouds break and the sky is filled with stars.
Gregor later sent this photo of another birth.
WEDS 30 JULY INNSBRUCK
We are cosy in the chalet but the weather is impossible for walking, so we decide to go for the day to Innsbruck. Gregor collected us and on arrival we went to see Otmar, Franz’s brother, who lives there. Christel, his wife, was not here and I missed her – I like them both. While the men were chatting, I looked at a supplement of German Vogue, which showed the last collections. There was a trouser suit from our Red Label collection. I noticed it because it was just about the only thing I liked. I thought most of the stuff was pretty bad and I don’t think there was anything I would have accepted as a present. I mention this because normally I don’t look at fashion magazines and the effect it had on me was to make me enthusiastic about doing our next collections. We all went into town for lunch. Some of the town is very old.
Then, following Andreas, I found myself inside a church looking at something I’d heard about when we were once in Vienna looking at art commissioned by Maximilian. It was his great tomb, built during his lifetime and wonderfully designed and worked. It contains only his heart. Twenty-eight bronze, larger-than-life figures surround it, watching over Maximilian in homage. The figures are heroes and ancestors chosen to give Maximilian a grand pedigree – of course the claims are not true, he is just manufacturing the importance of himself and his family for ongoing prestige. They were designed by the top artists of the day (Dürer was one) and they would first have been carved in wax, with precise detail, especially in the brocaded patterns of their rich garments. It is a momentous undertaking.
It is weird to us, this idea of burying different parts of the body of important people all over the place. In one of his travel journals, Aldous Huxley tells a story of how, in the time of Louis XIV, there was a funeral service for some of the remains of one of Louis’s aunts. The remains were her guts which were inside a sealed urn but had fermented and caused the urn to explode, splattering everyone. Huxley called it an ‘anatomic bomb’!
Maximilian’s cenotaph is surrounded by twenty-eight large bronze statues (200–250cm) of ancestors, relatives and heroes.
AUGUST 2014
FRI 1 – SAT 2 AUG MOUNTAIN GLORY
Awoke to Mountain Glory – and the Sun in the Blue. Andreas went out walking to the top of the mountain. I missed the opportunity; I was reading and had a breakthrough – getting a glimmer of what I’m searching for and hoping to enrich my perspective on the world and who we are. (Rabelais – there’s a lot still to read.) We went down the track to see a mudslide which had blocked it.
On Saturday, at last, I walked with Andreas to the top of the mountain and back through the woods. We didn’t pick the porcini mushrooms which were everywhere because we’d been feasting on them for three days – people were sending us baskets of them. The porcini (French: cepes) are called Steinpilze (one was as big as a hat) and chanterelles are called Pfifferlinge. Andreas has been cooking.
SUN 3 – TUES 5 AUG LAKE CONSTANCE
The time has passed too quickly but we are going to Lake Constance to see Iris and her sons for two days (she was our pattern cutter/inventor, remember?). Gregor comes for us at 10 o’clock and we call in to say goodbye to Martin and to have traditional Sunday lunch (little crispy pancakes, bean and barley soup, buttermilk to drink, cake and coffee). Julia gives us another big bag of mushrooms to take to Iris.
On the way down the mountain we stop at a five-hundred-year-old grand chalet, perched on top of a steep slope; it is rented out but belongs to the family. Andreas talks of how one day he would like to give himself time and space to make it sound enough for another five hundred years. He would take it apart and strengthen every piece of it and put it all back as it is in immaculate condition. There was never a house more elegant. It is true, built to last and at one with the environment. [He is now doing it.]
We caught the train from Innsbruck to Lindau. Iris and her boys Aamon and Hatto met us and took us to look around at Bad Schachen, a spa resort of the 1930s, the Riviera of the Germans. Everything is still original. An old man pushed a machine that looked like a lawn mower along the gravel paths stopping to let it burn off any grass under it, which had poked through the gravel. We saw such a lot on this holiday.
I stayed in Iris’s house writing up my diary whilst the others went out. Also staying with the family were Florian and his daughter, Josephine, aged nine, whom they had met on holiday. Josephine did everything with the boys, hurtling down the hill on their scooters, jumping off the pier and canoeing in the lake. I saw them as they came home, barefoot, she naked except for a pair of long printed cotton shorts worn low and still wet (I guess it’s a surfer’s fashion). They are all so fit and skinny, at an age where they are completely unselfconscious and open to everything, sitting all close up on the settee. It’s such a treat to be with children.
On our last evening at Iris’s we had a party at some friends of hers, who have plans for an energy centre. On the hillside are a series of long buildings, now abandoned, which were once a holiday centre for orphan children. It would be ideal. Iris runs and does yoga (also teaches it) and for quite a time she has been practising energy work. She taught Andreas and had given me a bottle of pomander to try it. I put it on my hands, smell them and then pass them up over my head and down my body over the chakra points. I do this each morning to start the day. I don’t know much more about it than this. But it must be a way to connect with cosmic forces and centre your own energy, empower you to help yourself and others. A Chinese friend once took my hands and moved my arms round my body, then let them go but so that I was able to collect my energy and draw it towards me. The weight felt like it would if you did this in water.
This part of the world is like a garden, lush and green with fruit trees everywhere laden. On our way to the party, our host told us that because the vines in the fields were cut by machine the grapes did not ripen well. He himself has a small vineyard and he says it is lovely work to trim the vines by hand; you need to leave the right amount of leaves with the fruit. A few years ago he began entering his wines in the most prestigious wine competition in the world – somewhere in Austria. They won gold or silver – to his complete surprise – and have done since. On a wall of his house the plaques are in rows, year on year – gold and silver.
THURS 7 AUG DREAMING OF PARIS
Home and back at work. We have a meeting with Simone, the architect who is working on our Paris building, shop, showrooms and flat – where Andreas and I would be able to stay a while, eventually. I would love to live in Paris and maybe we will be able to manage a week or two here and there. Oh, I would love to visit the French countryside, too; there is so much history there. I am a fan of French culture: life is too short to do everything we would like to do. We will open when we are r
eady.
FRI 8 AUG ADAM AND EVE
Andreas and I are acting as Adam and Eve in a film, Trouble in Paradise, for the movement to make ecocide a crime (End Ecocide on Earth). These people are brave and dedicated. I saw a short film that Marcus, their director, did for them and it really impressed me with its straightforward message. We were happy to take part in his next short film – and you’ll love the costumes. Marcus was sweet and marvellous. He was asking a lot, the short scenes were many and it was a day’s work for us. So he never asked us to repeat anything – just one take every time. He was able to do this because he had worked so hard so as to know exactly what he wanted – as well as leaving it open for us to be creative: total respect, great person, great team. Great day.
In costume as Adam and Eve for Trouble in Paradise.
WEDS 13 – THURS 14 AUG TO THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
We worked hard over the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday to bring things to a point with Red Label, our super-neglected but super-important collection. We got somewhere. It’s good to go in on Sunday when we’re not interrupted.
On Wednesday we set off for the Arctic Circle. John Sauven, who heads up UK Greenpeace, wanted me to go – they would be making a film. My objections: there is lots of film of the melting Arctic, why do we need another film right now? And why do you need me? Answer: people forget and they did need me. I said I’ll go if I can take two young people, George Jibson, age sixteen, very impressive in his need to engage with the world, and Brandon, eighteen, our friend and Pamela’s son who lives in California but is visiting England at the moment. Going gives me a chance to talk to them.
Our group included these two, John, Andreas and me, Lorna (filming) and her team James, Pietro and Ellie. We stopped overnight in Oslo. Andreas was great: when we arrived in mid-afternoon he got us all (except Brandon who crashed out) on the train to the art gallery. I’d never seen Munch except in reproduction. Here was a room of them. The power of communication is like a knife going in you; a superb and solid original, a genius.
We flew on to Spitzbergen: we give this name to the whole island but really it is just the name of the town (c. 2,000 people). The name of the island is Svalbard and it belongs to Norway. We are between latitude 75° and 85° north and the Greenpeace boat is anchored here in the bay. We are met by Jason, an Australian who will be our guide and has lived here for twenty years. He makes films at the moment and he worked with David Attenborough on his film about the Arctic. He knows everything.
He is typical of people who work with Greenpeace. Many are experts who have left their jobs because they were locked into the global economic system which they no longer wanted to serve. So they’re now all activists and they come from every country. Jaspar (Denmark) was with us all the time because he’s an expert on polar bears and was there to protect us (we didn’t see any). I can’t possibly tell you about the whole crew but we all agreed that the greatest experience was meeting them and spending some time with them. We crossed by dinghy to the boat, named the Esperanza; we climbed the rope ladder and strong hands pulled us in.
This was not the landscape of total snow and melting ice I was expecting. It was a world of great brown rocks and glaciers in the valleys between. The weather was warm and sunny. Blue skies – unusual. The wind playing over the rocks seemed to change their colour – every colour passed over them, and this, against the colour of the glaciers with pink shadows and, in particular, shadows of electric blue. Oh, yeah, the sun never set; it’s like that for six months – and dark for the other six. Andreas and Brandon wanted to go for a dip but somehow never got round to it. You have to be naked otherwise your clothes turn to ice and stick to you.
On Svalbard with George Jibson and Brandon Lee.
As we faced the glacier, Andreas talked of its power – enormous! – millions of tons of energy coming towards us. Brandon was fired by the idea of one day capturing that power. The glacier is forever moving and the sound of lumps crashing into the ocean is like gunshots. Previously the glaciers maintained their mass from the winter snowfall but now they are receding. Jason would say, ‘You see that rock in the sea, twenty years ago the glacier covered it.’ Brandon was choosing coloured bits of marble-type rock from the glacier to take back to his mom. And what was George doing? He was always the first to see where he could help and he was enjoying himself. He interviewed the captain for Lorna’s film. It really helped having the crew explain to the boys what they’re doing – it gives a dimension and a clarity for us all.
The ship sailed around and we visited an abandoned mining town, where we were met by two Russian guards. During the Cold War Russia had rented a part of the island. It was their last outpost and I expect they wanted the base just in case, so they used the excuse of mining for coal – though it wasn’t profitable. Within twenty years of leaving the mining infrastructure is rusted over and dilapidated. But the spirit of the Russian era is still standing in its statues and weathered propaganda. It is photographically attractive. It has only half a dozen blocks of flats, one of which serves as a cliff for the nesting kittiwakes. We had a drink in the cosy Russian bar of a hotel which operated for tourists – everywhere else was abandoned.
Svalbard – the abandoned Russian mining town.
Back in Spitzbergen we had a really great last night where everybody except me and George got drunk. A Ukrainian man who fancied Lorna kept sending round shots of tequila. Everybody was laughing – a lot to do with Brandon’s comments and jokes. We did all manage to catch the early flight back.
MON 18 AUG HELP!
People aren’t all back at work yet but we managed a bit of fashion and the Climate Revolution team are here so I got stuff up. Really pleased with the finished piece on fracking entitled ‘Help!’ I used Keith Haring’s visual language and I really enjoyed working within the website medium, reinforcing the focus always with the use of graphics, film and links. I don’t know how long it will take but we have to think how to link an all young contingent to Climate Revolution. I hope George and Brandon will have some ideas.
FRI 22 AUG DEGAS
Met Joe and Cora at the National Gallery. Love Joe. So impressed by his anti-fracking strategy. Don’t see enough of Cora. I talk to her and Joe about the paintings in the Impressionist rooms, then we wander off each on our own. Degas: I had seen a pastel in the Oslo gallery of a woman having her red hair drawn out and held for dressing; arms and hair stretching and compressing, holding the tension and the weight; colour and composition ruthless/divine. Now I stood in front of Young Spartans Exercising, not many people around me. Unbelievable that Degas could do what he did. What catches you about this work is youth: he paints youth.
Degas – Young Spartans Exercising, in the National Gallery.
SEPTEMBER 2014
MON 1 SEPT YES FOR SCOTLAND
I accepted an award from the Scottish Fashion Council for lifetime’s achievement. My love of tartan had a lot to do with it. I used my speech to talk on the importance of the Yes vote. I concentrated on the idea of democracy. In England there is nothing to choose between the main parties, therefore no democracy. I said: we English have to fight our government. You, Scotland can have the government you want. I was impressed by the young people – Scottish and English – who came up after to thank me for my speech. They all wanted Yes and they all knew why. Paul Weller’s son and daughter seemed to know all about the purpose of the private banks.
Scotland could open the capitalist trap governments hold us in and build a true value economy based on people power. The UK is a small island but it has enormous credibility. Lucky – historically, geographically; financially at the centre of a world that speaks English. But it does everything America wants. A Yes vote would send shock waves through the world – the Angel of Democracy wearing tartan. Scotland could be the catalyst that saves our planet. We have no choice but to build a new economy starting with renewable energy.
WEDS 10 SEPT CHRISSIE ILEY
I have to begin doing interviews for
the about-to-happen launch of my biography. One today for the Telegraph, which I really enjoyed because it’s with my old friend Chrissie Iley whom I hadn’t seen for maybe twenty years. She was one of the first journalists to take an interest in my fashion. I remember her from when I worked in the little King’s Road shop and she kept the clothes she bought as a regular customer. She still wears them all. She was wearing them now and they really suited her.
Afterwards I went downstairs to join Christina Hendricks, wearing our gowns for photos for Hollywood Reporter, to do with who wears what on the red carpet and who designs it. Andreas managed to join us. Christina’s actor husband Geoffrey is enjoying his role in a TV political drama. They are a happy couple.
WEDS 17 SEPT SCOTTISH REFERENDUM
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