Backstage at Vivienne Westwood Spring/Summer 2014 (PHOTOS)

Vivienne Westwood’s spring/summer 2014 collection, which showed in Paris this weekend, was unsurprisingly hairbrained and inventive. The designer, now 72, has become known for her signature wild style—and this collection was no exception. There were gauzy, pastel-colored dresses with raw edges, bags in pirate print, a “sexy nun” look, and even a “disco” outfit made of metallic strips. The designer said the inspiration for the collection was a visit to England’s Canterbury Cathedral, the medieval church. Models wore their hair in high, messy beehives—and makeup was created to look like as if the models’ faces had been splashed with mud. And as always, a few items in the collection paid tribute to Westwood’s cause célèbre, global warming. As the designer described in her show notes: “I’m going to call the show ‘everything is connected’ because that is the main message of the climate revolution and it means that everything each one of us thinks or says or does can make a difference.” See photographer Kevin Tachman’s exclusive images behind the scenes at the show.

Kevin Tachman/The Daily Beast