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When McLaren dumped Westwood in the early 1980s, it surprised many people to discover that he was the footnote and she was the talent.

On her own, she went on to anticipate several of the most important fashion trends of the past 20 years. In 1986 she showed her first “mini-crini”, based on the 19th-century crinoline, worn with wildly impractical platform shoes. Three seasons later it was “reinvented” by Christian Lacroix.

She was the first designer to put the corset on the catwalk, three years before Karl Lagerfeld did so at Chanel. Jean Paul Gaultier acknowledged her influence in his conical bras, made famous by Madonna.

Westwood spent part of the 1980s living in Italy with her then lover, and current business manager, Carlo D’Amario. When the romance, and her seven-year deal with Armani, ended, she moved back to the UK and fell back in love with British tailoring and fabrics. As the rest of the world embraced Lycra tubes, Westwood produced a Harris tweed collection, using specially woven tartans and tweeds made by hand on the Outer Hebrides.

“English tailoring and tradition have always been a big influence on me, it’s my mark, my roots. It’s not possible to have technique without tradition,” she told Women’s Wear Daily at the time.

This appreciation of tradition is not confined to tailoring. “We live in an age where young people are flattered into believing that they can do anything that they want,” she argues. “It’s not true. You have to have an aptitude for something. A talent for it.” But ability alone is not enough, there must also be discipline to achieve success and, according to Westwood: “The only important discipline is self-discipline.”

She uses the example of a young girl training to be a ballerina. “A great teacher will know how to push that girl. They’ll know what will interest her. She has to learn the technique. Without technique, self-expression is impossible.”

But teachers can only push a talent so far. “At the end of the day, you have to do it for yourself,” she says.

The volatile, iconoclastic Westwood exemplifies her own self-help philosophy. She has thrived in a way that few who experienced her early, chaotic efforts would have predicted. Returning from Italy in 1986, she reopened her shop at 430 King's Road. Holly Johnson, the lead singer of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, described a visit: “There was no lighting or electricity by which you could look at the rails of printed denim clothes. An old woman , sat in the corner sewing buttons on things in the dim light while another middle-aged, redheaded woman rummaged about, apologising for the lack of lighting or electricity.”

The middle-aged redhead now has seven shops in Hong Kong alone. Yet Westwood is no Roberto Cavalli with a monster yacht or Donatella Versace in her palazzo. She appears to dislike discussing fashion, preferring instead to talk about politics, philosophy, literature and art.

She has been vocal in her opposition of the anti-terror laws. “Arbitrary arrest happened in Stalin’s Russia and was once the prerogative of kings, which in England led to Charles I having his head cut off: it is the mark of tyranny.

“We are all at risk from government. Anyone can be picked up and punished with an indefinite control order, without trial, never having had the chance, adequately, to defend themselves. Now the government proposes yet more powers to detain suspects for up to three months without even charging them with a criminal offence.”

Her instincts are profoundly anti-commercial. At the Sex and the City premiere in London, the fashion event of the year, she told reporters: “I thought Sex and the City was supposed to be about cutting-edge fashion. There was nothing remotely memorable or interesting about what I saw. I left after 10 minutes.”

D’Amario, who runs the business side of her empire, does hold some sway however. The Westwood-designed wedding dress that featured in the film — described by Vogue.com as “the design to covet for the most stylish brides-to-be” — has been on display in the window of her flagship store in London. Stylish brides-to-be with deep enough pockets can have one made to measure.

Having dressed Sarah Jessica Parker — as well as Gwen Stefani, Dita Von Teese and other women that fellow designers would knock over their sewing machines to get their hands on — who is left for Westwood to get her own hands on? Her answer is, of course, a surprising one.

“I admire the Queen,” she says. “I think the institution of monarchy is very important. Before, the Queen was for me the personification of English hypocrisy. Now I see her as a supreme creature who inherited her position. I respect the Queen.”

Queen Elizabeth II. Glasgow’s pickiest fashion shoppers. These are two tricky audiences to please, especially at the same time. Dame Vivienne Westwood, you have your work cut out.

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