Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood DBE RDI is an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.
Westwood came to public notice when she made clothes for Malcolm McLaren's boutique in the King's Road, which became known as SEX. Their ability to synthesise clothing and music shaped the 1970s UK punk scene which was dominated by McLaren's band, the Sex Pistols. She viewed punk as a way of "seeing if one could put a spoke in the system".
Westwood opened four shops in London and eventually expanded throughout the United Kingdom and the world, selling an increasingly varied range of merchandise, some of which promoted her many political causes such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, climate change and civil rights groups.