“I read an interview with James Lovelock and he said that by the end of the next century there would be only one billion people left on earth due to climate change, natural disasters and mass-migration. There are six and a half billion people at the moment. So, I read his book The Revenge of Gaia and ever since I’ve been really traumatised, trying to think of what one person can do to help us change. I hope this interview with James Lovelock communicates to people the urgency of the situation. The human race has never faced anything like this before.

If young people don’t listen to him, they’re either stupid or just don’t care. Some people think that the next generation can deal with it, that it won’t happen to them. That won’t work. People need to inform themselves. If necessary, join a pressure group. Sign up to Prince Charles’s website about the rain forest. We’re all in it together. Politicians and businessmen will listen in the end.

I hijack my shows and my status as a fashion designer to talk about all the things that I think are really important, the importance of culture and human rights. What I actually do to be more environmentally friendly is to say to people, ‘Buy less clothes.’ But that’s actually quite self-serving because I also say, ‘Choose well!’ and I think you can’t choose better than Westwood! But don’t spend a lot of money, it’s better to buy nothing than to keep on buying rubbish. Everybody these days looks so depressed, such clones. The human race has never looked more terrible!

You get out what you put in. I’ve got people who come up to me as fans, all these little rich girls that run around town, but I don’t see them coming to my manifesto readings, even after I’ve told them about it. I don’t think they care.

My current position is that I intend to promote every idea of Lovelock’s that I can. I’ve decided to trust him. When he talks, it’s so consistent and he seems to talk such sense. I don’t mind what he made of me after this interview, it’s not important, but I’d like to talk to him again. I think he is the most important person on the planet, regarding where we are at right now. And even though he calls himself an optimist, he’s not optimistic in the short term.

The one real factor that’s not in this equation of automatic disaster is the ability of human beings to respond to a crisis. But, like Lovelock says, we always leave it to other people. We are these tribal carnivores who just follow our leaders and let them solve it, but we’ve all got to do something about it. Now.” 

Interview © Tim Noakes