We’ve always been obsessed with Vivienne Westwood, and our trip to her homeland has lead to a shopping obsession: We must buy something from Vivienne’s line.

But despite our admiration and affection, her Anglomania diffusion range is very hard to wear – and we’ve seen the pieces sitting forlornly on sales racks all over town.

Luckily, Viv won us back with her recent collection for the super-lux, UK-based Rug Company. While she’s worked with the carpet company before, we think the new rugs – based on patterns from her S/S 2006 “Active Resistance to Propaganda� collection - are the coolest yet.

But we can’t buy them, because they cost more than Prada shoes.

Until we enter the tax bracket where “price upon request� seems reasonable, we’ll settle for these active resistance pins, which you can buy on the (relatively) cheap from Vivienne’s somewhat schizophrenic manifesto website.


—ALISON COOL