The revolution will not be televised. It will be brought to you by the incandescent imagination of Vivienne Westwood. Westwood is a designer who “use[s] fashion as a vehicle for activism”, a truism as prescient as ever in the release of her latest collection for AW18/19.

Known for the political fire that she brings to her innovative, and now classic, designs, this latest collection sees Westwood present her work in video-format instead of on the runway, another facet in the increasing ways that designers, including Westwood, are pushing the boundaries of the traditional format of fashion shows (see Molly Goddard and Kanye West).

"A radical vision for an inclusive politics, Westwood’s fashion is all bite."

More notably, this latest collection is the culmination of Westwood’s Climate Revolution movement. Westwood’s revolution preaches an inter-connectivity and calls for radical social and political change; the collection is based around a pack of playing cards, defined by the mantra “collect the cards, connect the cards”. Westwood’s playing cards represent the pressing problems of our tumultuous world, and the full set of cards present a political and social strategy to create peace and change, values Westwood has both practiced and preached through her creativity and voice within and outside of the industry for decades.

Yet while her overtly political collection falls into the latest zeitgeist of the fashion industry, her intentions go much deeper than a lightly-politicised Instagrammable slogan tee – Westwood is tackling the Establishment head on. Each playing card features a different political message, for example the Ten of Clubs which calls out the lies of the Obama administration in claiming to be “creating a world without nuclear war” whilst increasing US nuclear power during his time in Office. This willingness to challenge and criticise is in itself is summative of her fearlessness in fighting her causes. A radical vision for an inclusive politics, Westwood’s fashion is all bite. She is brazen, bold and brilliant, an example of how powerful and transformative fashion can be.

In the same way that the explicit politicisation of the collection is quintessentially Westwood, so too are the pieces which make up the AW18 collection. Celebrating her classic style, the slouchy suit features heavily along with an abundance of tweed and heritage prints; Westwood’s war-time warriors are the pinnacle of style. There is a pervasive practicality and a utilitarianism to the work, chiming with the theme of war which inspired the pieces.

The message ‘Don’t Get Killed’ is somewhat ominous in a world where nuclear war is increasingly a conceivable reality and international relations, in addition to domestic politics, are become ever-more inflammatory. Westwood thrives off political turmoil, she is a designer who is political to her core, having played a foundational role in the British punk movement during the 70s.

The designs of the pieces for her AW18 collection include punk-ish twists which, combined with the classic English heritage materials and boxy cuts, allude to Westwood’s roots in the politics surrounding the movement. In this sense the provocative activism of the past is tied to the rising of today, and Westwood’s latest collection offers an empowering vision of contemporary youth culture.

But it would be a mistake to assume Westwood’s work is just for the young. It is age-inclusive in an industry that can often disempower many women by portraying youth as the pivot of beauty. Lines of gender are also merged because, as Westwood humorously states, “It’s unisex, therefore economical – swap clothes!”, a fashion tip which will undoubtedly be useful in the dystopian future Westwood is battling against.

Yet Westwood’s collection also offers hope: it is the young, the creatives, the forward-thinking who will light the way, united in spirit as they are in Westwood’s presentation where individuality meets unity. Differences are simultaneously celebrated and merged: male and female, young and old, black and white. Westwood’s collection reflects both the challenges we face as a society, but also celebrates the creativity and hope needed to fight that. What other way could the politically and artistically fearless Westwood say ‘Happy New Year’?