Lack Of Style

DAME VIVIENNE WESTWOOD has never been shy to tell us what she thinks of us - whether it's our pointless love of disposable items or the harm we are, however inadvertently, causing the planet - but the latest bug bear on her list is our style, or lack thereof.

"People have never looked so ugly as they do today, regarding their dress," she told journalists yesterday, following her Red Label show in London. "We are so conformist, nobody is thinking. I'm a fashion designer and people think 'what do I know?' but I'm talking about all this disposable crap. So I'm saying buy less, choose well, make it last… In history people dressed much better than we do. If you saw Queen Elizabeth it would be amazing, she came from another planet. She was so attractive in what she was wearing."

And, in an interview over the weekend, it emerged that Stefano Pilati - whose pared-back, classic, tailoring-focused vision for YSL could scarcely be more different from Westwood - agrees with the Dame.

"It's not easy to find elegant women," Pilati told Vice magazine. "There are a few, the majority of whom are old - and there are one or maybe two in the world who created a new style when they were young. Today when I go to New York and survey art and fashion, I see smart women and the level is high. But there's a difference between this and saying a woman is elegant. My idea of elegance - and this refers to women as well as men - is that someone is elegant when he or she shows a good knowledge of what fits them, where you can find naturalness and self-esteem. Not showing off. Elegance is the idea of showing an optimistic depiction of oneself, and to lose oneself in the frivolity of style and fashion. Nowadays nobody gives a shit about being elegant, or chic. If you're doing it, you're doing it for yourself, because it's your way of being. When you're not thinking, "This is fashion," and you're not buying clothes to create statements, you're on the right path."