Dame Vivienne Westwood, Lifetime Achievement Medal 2019

“Buy less. Choose Well. Make it last.”

The Lifetime Achievement Medal was created to honour those who have made  a transformative contribution to both the design industry and our wider culture over the course of their career. In Dame Vivienne Westwood’s case, to suggest that she has had a significant impact on the UK’s creative scene would be a profound understatement. For over five decades, Westwood has been one of the most celebrated names in fashion, from her days as the midwife of the punk movement working with Malcolm McLaren, to her ascent to the status of international design icon – and, in 2004, the subject of the V&A’s largest ever exhibition devoted to a living designer. More than any of her peers, Westwood has used her work as a platform for her activism, and has been passionately campaigning against climate-wrecking consumerism for many years. Zetteler’s film follows Vivienne as she prepares for a new exhibition to raise funds for the protection of the rainforest and sets out her agenda for saving the world.