An arresting array of more than 150 garments and accessories, from the gloriously elegant to the rebelliously provocative, by the iconoclastic fashion designer Vivienne Westwood will be showcased in this spirited and engaging exhibition. The work, created over 35 years, encompasses styles from the street style of the 1970s to grand ball gowns whose designs were influenced by historical art and dress, to the more recent exploration of pattern-cutting techniques and socio-political critique. Organized by the V&A, London, the exhibition is the largest display that the museum has ever dedicated to a British designer and features designs selected from both the V&A's collection and Vivienne Westwood's personal archive. The San Francisco showing is the only North American venue of a four-year international tour of European, Asian, and Pacific Rim venues.

Vivienne Westwood (b. 1941) is a global icon as well as an iconoclast. In the 1970s, she electrified the fashion world with the launch of punk and went on to become one of the most inventive and influential designers of our time. Fashion to her became "a baby I picked up and never put down." Known best for her willingness to take risks and to disregard conventions, she also has a profound respect for the past and such as corsets and crinolines and reinvents them in new ways.

Another hallmark of her ever-evolving work is her use of thoroughly British fabrics such as tartans and tweeds to create fashion that gently parodies Establishment styles and the royalty. Regardless of how outrageous or provocative the result may be however, her approach has always been practical. She is driven by a curiosity about how things work, and her work reflects her systematic exploration of the structure of historical costume.

Vivienne Westwood: "You have a much better life if you wear impressive clothes"
A major influence on fashion design, her career ranges from street wear and haute couture to ready-to-wear; from outfits that she designed in the 1970s for the Sex Pistols, the corsetry and ball gowns of the 1980s and 1990s and the innovative pattern cutting of the most recent years. Her work spans the extremes of fashion, from London street culture to the elegant collections created for the catwalks of Paris, London and Milan and reveals Westwood's own evolution from subversive shop owner to one of fashion's most respected and colourful figures. The V&A curator of the Westwood exhibition, Claire Wilcox, says: "Highly influential and always ahead of her time, Vivienne Westwood encapsulates a particular kind of Britishness, combining fearless non-conformity with a sense of tradition�."

The exhibition includes sections devoted to tailoring, tartan, and accessories, and the famous blue mock-croc platform shoes that Naomi Campbell wore when she fell on the catwalk in 1993 will also be on display. Film and catwalk footage about the life and career of Westwood will be shown throughout the exhibition. Vivienne Westwood's contribution to British fashion was honored in 1990 and 1991 when she was awarded British Designer of the Year twice in a row. The global strength of her business was recognized in 1998 when she was given the Queen's Award for Export, and in 2003 she was named Export Designer of the Year and awarded the UK Fashion Export Award for Design. Her place in British cultural history was firmly established in 2006 when she became the first ever British designer to receive a OBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for her outstanding contribution to fashion.