Although much too long - a book half its length would have been just as effective - this is one of the most perceptive examinations of fashion to have been written during the past 20 years. The contrary Vivienne Westwood obviously provides the author's central figure, but around her swirl a substantial cast of equally amusing, maddening, talented and self-defeating characters. Fashion is shown in all its self-serving silliness, but the tone avoids being sneering or in any way judgmental. Instead, Mulvagh demonstrates how eventually even the most competent designer cannot hope to thrive in a business which depends most heavily on marketing acumen. For Mulvagh, the tragedy is that the autodidact Westwood never managed to learn this fundamental lesson.