Vivienne Westwood was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in Glossop, Derbyshire on 8th April 1941. After moving to London with her family at the age of 17 Vivienne began designing in 1971, along with her partner Malcolm McLaren, using their shop at 430 Kings Road as a showcase for their original and creative ideas.
By the end of the seventies Vivienne Westwood was already considered a symbol of the British avant-garde and in Autumn/Winter 1981 she showed her first catwalk presentation at Olympia in London. In October 1982, Vivienne Westwood began to show in Paris, the first British designer to do so since Mary Quant.

In autumn 1984, Vivienne Westwood was invited to show her collection in Tokyo with Hanae Mori, Calvin Klein, Claude Montana, and Gianfranco Ferre at "the best of five". 1984 was also a very important year for Vivienne as it marked a radical change of direction. Street style and youth culture ceased to play a major part of her world. She now finds inspiration in traditional Savile Row tailoring techniques, British fabrics and 17th and 18th century art. The orb logo that was first used around this time perfectly symbolized "taking tradition in to the future".
In 1989 Mr. John Fairchild, president of Fairchild publications and editor of the fashion bible Women's Wear Daily, in his book "chic savages", listed Vivienne as one of the six most influential designers in the world. Vivienne has always included menswear within her womenswear collections, but in July 1990 Vivienne showed her first complete menswear collection in conjunction with Pitti Uomo in Florence. In that year Vivienne Westwood was awarded the prestigious title of British designer of the year. Vivienne was again awarded British Designer of the year in 1992.

1993 brought the division of her womenswear label in to two different lines: "Gold Label", selling couture, and "Red Label" the pret-a-porter line. "Man" her independent menswear line was first shown, to International acclaim, in 1996 during Collezioni Uomo in Milan. In 1998 Vivienne launched a new line "Anglomania" for men and women in order to complete the Westwood universe and meet a younger and more casual demand. In the same year Vivienne Westwood launched her first fragrance "Boudoir" to be accompanied in 1999 by the bodyline "Les Coquetteries". Vivienne began designing a complete range of eyewear, both sunglasses and optical, for wold wide distribution. "Libertine" Vivienne's second fragrance was launched in 2001.

From 2002 to present day, Vivienne Westwood has opened more stores in Italy, Russia, Japan, Korea and China. A third fragrance Anglomania was launched in 2004 and the same year saw the V&A host a Vivienne Westwood retrospective exhibition to celebrate 34 years in fashion - the largest exhibition ever hosted by a living British fashion designer, which is now touring the world. Vivienne Westwood is now both recognized as a global brand and Vivienne herself one of the most influential fashion designers in the world. In 2006, her contribution towards British Fashion was officially recognized when she was appointed a Dame.