From slashed punk T-shirts to couture satin ball gowns, Dame Vivienne Westwood is the unrivalled, if controversial, doyenne of British fashion.

Both Dame Vivienne and her designs have become red carpet must-dos – how fabulous Kim Cattrall looked in her red dress at the Sex and the City London premiere.

Like Westwood herself, her clothes are a mass of contradictions, combining tradition with shockability. For one who likes to poke at the Establishment, it's ironic that her creations are adored now by those in power – Pontefract and Castleford MP and chief secretary to the Treasury Yvette Cooper wore a Westwood velvet suit when she married Ed Balls.

Rooted in British culture, the beauty of Westwood's designs lies in their quirky, historical influences, so where better to show them off than at York Castle Museum, with the recreated Kirkgate of Victorian times providing an atmospheric backdrop for our shoot.

Westwood showed her Red Label autumn/winter collection (which has more affordable prices) at London Fashion Week earlier this year but continues to show her primary line, Gold Label, in Paris. Meanwhile, her fabulously quirky Anglomania collection – launched in 1997 and dubbed Clothes for Heroes – captures the iconic spirit of rebellious youth that stems from Westwood's earlier work. Pieces from all three ranges can be found at the new Vivienne Westwood store in York.

As the recent Sheffield retrospective of her work demonstrated, Westwood is and always has been obsessed with historical style, studying paintings and books to find out exactly how garments of the past were cut and put together. She adores traditional fabrics too and this season's collections bring together tweeds, tartans, pinstripes and houndstooth, with velvets, satins, silks and faux furs.

You don't have to wear Westwood head to toe. Each garment is key, and each is a little piece of fashion history. These are clothes for those who truly love and appreciate British design genius.