No woman in the world, knitting in her living room at age 73, could trace a trajectory from nipple clamps to the Climate Revolution––and then call it her life story-–except for the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. A new eponymous biography, authored in collaboration with actor and writer Ian Kelly, charts her influence on the politics and punk aesthetic of post-war Britain. As one of the most famous Englishwomen on the planet, the story is dramatic and surprising.

From humble beginnings in the English countryside, Vivienne Westwood rose, and fell, and then rose again to the top of the fashion world as a visionary who knew how to help express an emerging moment in youth culture––and to dress it before ...