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Published on: 2/1/2008
Last Visited: 6/18/2008
In the 80's Westwood creativity invaded runaways, starting with her celebrated debut in London in 1981 with her "Pirate collection" and being the first English designer after Mary Quant to have a show in Paris(1982); in the twenty five years that followed a lot of impressive collections hit European catwalks, combining different backgrounds and inspirations, from English traditional tailoring to couture-theatrical costumes, from feminine issues transposed in design to ironic, irreverent (but someway fascinated) approach to Monarchy institution in United Kingdom.The extraordinary strength of the character is witnessed by the great penetration of her audience into different contexts, from haute-couture experts to underground urban tribes, from artist and musician followers to prestigious institutional recognitions and honour titles: Miss Westwood controversial attitude is also represented by the fact she has been nominated "Officer of the Order of the British Empire" and "Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire", but at the same time in September 2005, Westwood joined forces with the British civil rights group Liberty and launched exclusive limited design T-shirts and baby wear bearing the slogan "I AM NOT A TERRORIST", please don't arrest me, in open contrast to English government foreign policy.