... rock and the New Romantics. Vivienne Westwood began showing in Paris in 1982, the first British designer to do so since Mary Quant. The "Buffalo Collection" which featured industrial-strength bras atop sweaters, ample skirts and tattered sheepskin capes, paid tribute to the women of Peru. Since then, she has brought us pelvis-skimming micro-chrinoline skirts, razored clothes from her "Cut & Slash" collection, clashing tartan and check knitwear and is presently in a lofty Scarlett O'Hara phase replete with the above-mentioned bustles, hour-glass figure, and netted petticoats. Vivienne Westwood was a teacher before she became a self-taught fashion designer and her clothes reflect her fondness for history and learning. Each collection is widespread with subtext and cross-references, which the audience (and buyer) may be forgiven for not catching. Westwood's cosseted woman in girdles and stays and bustiers and whalebone, teetering out on nine-inch platforms, could be seen as an ironic comment ...

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