In the ever-evolving landscape of fashion and activism, few names resonate as profoundly as Katharine Hamnett’s. Renowned for her bold designs and unyielding political stance, Hamnett has consistently pushed the boundaries of what it means to be a designer with a conscience. Her latest venture, a collaboration with Block9 at Glastonbury 2024 and a new slogan campaign, highlights her unwavering commitment to social justice at such a politically pivotal moment. Written in her signature typography, colourful posters are plastered throughout the Block9 brutalist dance arena calling for freedom to protest, free tuition, affordable sustainable housing, and other core socio-political issues Hamnett has been calling for across her career. Underscored by her deep belief in the power of collective action, each poster features a QR code that takes you to websites where you can register to vote in the UK, EU & America.

Speaking to us below, Hamnett’s message is clear: meaningful change is within reach, but it requires informed, engaged, and persistent efforts from us all.

Max Cocking: What made you choose Block9 and Glastonbury as platforms for your latest campaign?
Katharine Hamnett: Generally, I’m not a big festival-goer. I’ve been to Glastonbury once, but the mud put me off. But the key for this election, which is the most important of our lives, the most important one that the planet has ever seen, is that life on Earth depends on us getting it right. Not just in the UK but also in the US and everywhere. There are more elections this year than ever in the history of humanity. This is where Block9 and Glastonbury come in, as the key demographic to get this message out to are young people and women. And Glastonbury absolutely hits the nail on the head for this. It’s a wonderful place to throw out ideas and meet people. It’s fertile territory.

“I’ve been to Glastonbury once, but the mud put me off.”

MC: Can you tell me more about your collaboration with Block9 at Glastonbury? What should festival-goers expect?
KH: Well, I’ve created the posters with QR codes, which take you to places where you can register to vote in the UK, EU & America. I’m hoping people will stand in front of them, take selfies, photograph themselves, and share them with their friends because I’ve learned that awareness is the most powerful tool for getting the world we want. This is bigger than England, so many people aren’t registered to vote in the US. We’re hoping to introduce this campaign to the States after the election to help them with their election too. This is why it’s amazing to be somewhere like Block9 at Glastonbury, where so many of the artists are international. This is the beautiful and powerful thing about music, it’s global. It’s the thing that truly has the power to affect our consciousness apart from light.

MC: You’ve been a pioneer in sustainable fashion. How has the industry’s approach to sustainability changed since you started?
KH: Well, not as fast as I’d like. It’s become better on some things. One of the driving forces is obviously consumer awareness. People have been so bombarded they’re beginning to understand, and then there was the catastrophe of Rana Plaza, which highlighted the conditions that garment workers work in. I think that’s also affected people. But, underneath it all, they’ve all got to make money. You get many of those brands, and they have an organic, sustainable section. But if you dig a bit deeper, you might find that their clothes were made by prisoners or entities who used slave labour. It’s tough. Often, your favourite brands may be using some toxic material. PVC is one of the most toxic materials in the world, its manufacture and disposal.

MC: How do you decide which messages to highlight in your campaigns?
KH: Right now, I’m focused on raising awareness of the power to vote. If we all voted according to our hearts, we’d have the world we wanted. But, you know, we’ve become so rotted by comfort and lost control of our political system. It doesn’t represent us, and then the only money there is is our money – the only money governments have to spend is our money. We’ve forgotten that, or did we ever know it? This is the truth. We’ve got the right to decide how it’s spent. One of the ways we do that is by voting for the right people.

MC: What are some of the biggest moments in your career that you’re most proud of?
KH: I think just the other day when I dropped my CBE in the rubbish. I was so disgusted with the vote on Gaza, and the ceasefire. I got my CBE and I put it in the dustbin. It was seen over 10 million times. It’s so funny because it’s been on television in Turkey, and I live in a Turkish Afro Caribbean West African area. They’ve all seen me on television, so I now get such incredible service in the market.

“Being arrested is a real pain in the ass.”

MC: How do you maintain your optimism and drive for change in the face of setbacks?
KH: By pessimism. It’s optimism driven by pessimism. Let’s face it, if we don’t get our shit together now, we’re fucked. Because it’s possibly too late, but if there’s a chance that it isn’t, well, even if it is too late, you’ve got to go down fighting. My optimism also comes from believing that 99 percent of people are good. I’ve travelled and worked all over the world, and we’re all the same; most people just want the same things. They just want to be happy. They want to live in peace. They want to have a nice life. They don’t want to be poisoned by their clothes and washing products. And the thing is, it’s within our grasp! If we get off our asses and get engaged, literally check out who the candidates are, and if they represent our views, vote for them.

MC: What advice would you give to young designers and activists who want to make a difference?
KH: With this new policing bill, get off the streets and get online. Stay safe, don’t get arrested. Being arrested is a real pain in the ass. You can’t go to America, and having a criminal record affects everything. We need to smarten up our game. Marches and demonstrations are great, but they don’t change anything unless you harass your MP. Politicians are a vested interest group that is just interested in being elected, and the only place you can affect them is by making them afraid that unless they represent your views, we won’t vote for them again. Politicians and think tanks call it the sleeping giant because if the population woke up and realised the power of its vote, they’d all be out of jobs. And we’d have a better world, which is in our grasp this year. Fuck knows what it will be like in the next election. And if we get it wrong, it will be an irreparable mess.

“Let’s face it, if we don’t get our shit together now, we’re fucked.”

MC: You’ve mentioned Buddhism in your philosophy towards business. How do these beliefs shape your approach to activism and design?
KH: They say that anything you do has to be for the good of all living things, and you know, the right livelihood is part of this. It’s all about philosophy and how to be happy. It’s about right thinking, right attitudes, and intention. The right livelihood one is something I focus on. The other ones are not easy, but the physicality of just making clothes is much easier to check than your spiritual performance in meditation or action. I came in late to it, but if I’d known what I found out before I started fashion, I’d never have gone into it. We’ve done a lot of research into the industry, and it’s a nightmare. Thousands of farmers in cotton agriculture are dying annually from poisoning, gasification, and long-term contamination of the aquifer with pesticides and herbicides, which are huge human and animal and biodiversity health hazards and contamination of the sea. And that’s just in cotton agriculture. Then you look at all the fossil fuel derivatives, like polyester using fossil fuels. The whole sort of process is toxic and then breaks into microplastic, which is killing everything.

MC: What are your plans after the Block9 collaboration? Are there any new projects or campaigns in the pipeline?
KH: It’s all the same. Think about it, Trident is costing £303 billion now. What would that buy on the NHS, housing, schools, cleaning up fucking lead pipes? We just can’t afford extravagance, so more of the same, but also, I’m interested in putting out feelers in the space and seeing if anybody would like to do some more stuff with us because it’s been quite effective. I did one with Led By Donkeys saying, ‘Don’t let them stop you voting’ that went out all over the country. There’s now been a surge in youth voter registration; the undecided, it was like a million extra registrations. If we are having a tiny bit of effect, if we just got one extra person out to vote, it’s been worth it because elections have been won by one vote. Thomas Jefferson, 1800, President of the United States. Check it.

Katharine Hamnett will be raising awareness of her campaign to vote in collaboration with Block9 at Glastonbury Festival 2024