The Origin Stories Of 6 Punk Fashion Icons

Over her 40-year career, Vivienne Westwood's inspirations have crossed the globe and spanned eras. Maybe the one constant is her audacity — an inherent instinct for tweaking conventional morality, gleefully dispensing with taboo, and investigating the class signifiers we deploy with dress.

Those ideas so shaped the punk attitude and aesthetic, and run so deeply throughout her own work, that even when Westwood stopped designing bondage suits and stenciled tees and started playing with Victorian influences and classic British luxury, her designs still carry a hint of anarchy.

A new book called Vivienne Westwood: Fashion Unfolds gives us a fascinating tour through the ideas and obsessions that shaped the career of a true fashion provocateur. Ahead, we explore the inspiration behind six of her most iconic and influential designs.