Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood

Vivienne Isabel Swire was born in Tintwistle, Cheshire. She worked as a primary school teacher and made her own jewelry and clothes before partnering with Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren. In 1971, they opened a boutique at 430 Kings Road in Chelsea, which went through various incarnations including "Sex" and "Seditionaries."

Westwood synthesized the visual language of punk rock, shocking the British establishment with safety pins, razor blades, bondage trousers, torn t-shirts, and provocative slogans that clothed the Sex Pistols and galvanized youth rebellion. In 1981, she launched her first commercial catwalk collection, "Pirates," inaugurating a four-decade career as an haute couture visionary. Her work combined historical tailoring (corsets, crinolines, Savile Row tartans) with anarchic irreverence. A ferocious environmental activist, she used her fashion platform to protest climate change and nuclear weapons. She was created Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2006, famously twirling without underwear for photographers outside Buckingham Palace.