Vivienne Westwood

Hello, I’m Amber 1 and this is bbclearningenglish.com.
　　In Entertainment today, we go back to the mid-1970s when punk rock and theBritish fashion designer Vivienne Westwood ruled the day! ‘Punk’ was apopular style among young people and it involved shocking the establishmentwith rebellious 2 music, shocking behaviour and outrageous 3 clothes!
　　We hear a description of the ‘punk look’, the punk style of clothes and hair.
　　And we hear how those clothes made the designer Vivienne Westwood famous.
　　But the story doesn’t end there – ‘these days’ (that’s a handy expression fortalking about the present time, in comparison with the past) – these days –Vivienne Westwood is a ‘Dame 4’ – she’s been honoured by the Queen andgiven the title ‘Dame’, and her fashion designs are museum pieces!
　　Here’s BBC presenter 5 Mark Coles describing punk culture and VivienneWestwood’s part in that trend. As you listen, try to catch the verb (it’s USslang) that Mark uses to explain that punk rockers were disrespectful andcritical of the Queen.
　　Mark Coles‘Spiky-haired youngsters running around in tartan bondage 6 trousers, safety pins and spikeddog collars, dissing the Queen and calling for revolution on the streets! Well, that punk look,its anarchy 7 symbols and torn clothes, was all Vivienne Westwood. It helped turn her into ahousehold name – one of the world’s most influential 8, not to mention, notorious, fashiondesigners. These days, more than 30 years on, you’re more likely to find her designs hangingin prestigious 9 museums like the National Gallery of Australia. She’s also Dame VivienneWestwood – honoured by the very Queen that the Sex Pistols savaged 10 back in punk’sheyday.’
　　Did you catch it? Mark says punk rockers were ‘dissing’ the Queen. But thatwas in ‘punk’s heyday 11’ (in the 1970s) – the heyday of something is the time ofits greatest popularity.
　　Listen again and try to catch what the punk rockers looked like!
　　Mark Coles‘Spiky-haired youngsters running around in tartan bondage trousers, safety pins and spikeddog collars, dissing the Queen and calling for revolution on the streets! Well, that punk look,its anarchy symbols and torn clothes, was all Vivienne Westwood. It helped turn her into ahousehold name – one of the world’s most influential, not to mention, notorious, fashiondesigners. These days, more than 30 years on, you’re more likely to find her designs hangingin prestigious museums like the National Gallery of Australia. She’s also Dame VivienneWestwood – honoured by the very Queen that the Sex Pistols savaged back in punk’sheyday.’
　　Amber:  So punk rockers wore their hair in ‘spiky’ styles – stuck into sharp points,sticking upwards 12! They often wore safety pins and even ‘spiked dog collars’ –just to shock! Oh, and rather colourful trousers – ‘tartan bondage trousers’.
　　Tartan is kind of wool fabric 13 with straight patterns, often with a lot of red andblack lines in it. Bondage trousers have lots of zips and rips (they’re often‘torn’)!
　　But now, Vivienne Westwood is speaking out again – this time she’s criticisingsome forms of popular culture, like the cinema and magazines, and sayingpeople should go to the theatre and read books instead. She’s launched acultural manifesto 14 called ‘Active Resistance To Propaganda’, in which she askspeople to forget commerce, celebrity 15 and conceptual art and immersethemselves instead in great culture. Here she is. Try to catch why she’sencouraging people to rebel.
　　Vivienne Westwood‘Every time you go to the theatre instead of the cinema, you are active in the theatre, you arethinking, you are using your imagination. I’m not saying that cinema sometimes maybe cannot be artistic 16, but usually it’s not. Magazines are mostly for the – not only the illiterate 17 – butthe visually illiterate. A magazine is something you just wet your finger, and just go throughthe pages – flick 18, flick, flick – there’s not even anything particularly to see in there!’
　　Amber:  So Vivienne Westwood says we should experience forms of art which makeus think and use our imaginations. She says we should be ‘active’ in the arts!
　　Vivienne Westwood‘Every time you go to the theatre instead of the cinema, you are active in the theatre, you arethinking, you are using your imagination. I’m not saying that cinema sometimes maybe cannot be artistic, but usually it’s not. Magazines are mostly for the – not only the illiterate – butthe visually illiterate. A magazine is something you just wet your finger, and just go throughthe pages – flick, flick, flick – there’s not even anything particularly to see in there!’
　　Amber:   Now let’s recap the language we focussed on.
　　‘that punk look’ - the rebellious style of clothes and hair fashionable in the1970sto dis – that’s US slang, meaning to be disrespectful, to criticise‘punk’s heyday’ – the heyday of something is the time of its greatestpopularity.