While Westwood’s punk lobbying extended beyond the catwalk to anti-fracking protests, stripping off for PETA in support of vegetarianism and launching her Climate Revolution campaign in typically bold fashion at the 2012 London Paralympics, Stormzy’s music is a platform for his beliefs around education, equal rights and the justice system.
The Union Jack motif emblazoned across Stormzy’s stab-proof Banksy vest at Glastonbury is one also intertwined with Westwood’s anarchic reappropriations of historical insignia, such as with her autumn/winter 2002collection. The woman who always wore her agenda on her sleeve draped herself in the British flag a handful of times, but perhaps most memorably upon taking a bow on the spring/summer 2006 runway while wearing an “I am not a terrorist, please don’t arrest me” T-shirt.
So yes, Stormzy’s Vogue World: London suit is a cracking piece of tailoring, but it is also a metaphor for strength. “The art lover is a freedom fighter,” said Kronthaler ahead of the West End show, which saw Stormzy kitted out in a new kind of armour among peers who, as the designer put it, believe that “the arts are fundamental to the human race”.