Apathetic Or Enthusiastic?
Westwood and models celebrate after her runway show this week in Shanghai (Photo by Photo by Gong Si for Shanghai Daily)
In Shanghai earlier this week to kick off Shanghai S/S 2012 Fashion Week, British fashion icon Vivienne Westwood upheld her reputation for being notoriously outspoken yet inscrutable. Despite her brand’s expansion in China, where the company has opened three stores this year, including a brand-new flagship in Shanghai, Westwood’s mixed messages on China and the Chinese retail market have caused us a considerable amount of confusion.
As the Huffington Post notes:
While designer apathy towards the China market is far from unheard of — as APC founder and owner Jean Touitou said earlier this year, ““I know people are crazy for China, but I’m not at all” — Westwood’s ostensibly aloof attitude seems either disingenuous or misread in the wake of another article on Fashion Week by Shanghai Daily. In an interview with reporter Yang Di, Westwood comes across as a budding Sinophile, talking excitedly about her new collection and waxing enthusiastic about Chinese culture and history over glasses of champagne. From Shanghai Daily:
There’s not much use in reading too much into these articles, as their incongruities could be a case of Westwood simply playing to her audiences, poor translation (in Shanghai Daily‘s case) or lazy journalism. But as a designer whose brand is making serious inroads in a receptive China market, it’s curious that Vivienne Westwood would come across as so glib in a Western publication while gushing about China and Chinese art while in Shanghai. Which is it?