Friday's Fabulous Woman : Vivienne Westwood

I am featuring the British fashion designer, Dame Vivienne Westwood this week because I am always in awe of people who have the energy and ideas to sustain a career over a long period of time.  Per Vogue UK : 
• Westwood was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in Glossop, Derbyshire, on April 8, 1941
• She began designing clothes in 1971 with the opening of her first shop, Let It Rock, at 430 King's Road. In 1974 it was renamed Sex
•  In 1976, with her then lover and business partner, Malcolm McLaren, they dressed the Sex Pistols
•  In 1981, Westwood showed her first seminal collection in London, entitled Pirate
• In 1990, Westwood launched a menswear collection in Florence. She was named British Designer of the Year that year, as well as in 1991
• In 1998 she won the Queen's Export Award
• In 2007 she was awarded the gong for Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Design at the British Fashion Awards - but she was late on to the stage to collect it since she'd popped out to go to the loo.

I love the blend of pattern, shape and color in her 2010 collection below. All I have to do now is figure out how to carry off a look like this so that I look hip and cool rather than a cross between a baglady and the mad hatter.... Photos via FabSugar . . .