Biography of Vivienne Westwood

Born in 1941, and first came to prominence in 1971 when she began a 13-year collaboration with Malcolm McLaren. She became the first British designer to show in Paris since Mary Quant when her 'Bufalo Collection', based on Peruvian women's fashion, caught the imagination in 1982.

She was active in the punk rock fashion of the 1970s and the pioneer of the 'New Romantic' style of the early 1980s. Her designs have included leather bondage gear, latex lounge dresses, flesh-coloured body suits, slashed t-shirts and mink g-strings.