FASHION DESIGNERS from United Kingdom

Top 5

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary British Fashion Designers of all time. This list of famous British Fashion Designers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Vivienne Westwood (1941 - 2022)

With an HPI of 67.92, Vivienne Westwood is the most famous British Fashion Designer.  Her biography has been translated into 53 different languages on wikipedia.

Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood (née Swire; 8 April 1941 – 29 December 2022) was an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. In 2022, Sky Arts ranked her the 4th most influential artist in Britain of the last 50 years. Westwood came to public notice when she made clothes for the boutique that she and Malcolm McLaren ran on King's Road, which became known as Sex. Their ability to synchronise clothing and music shaped the 1970s UK punk scene, which included McLaren's band, the Sex Pistols. She viewed punk as a way of "seeing if one could put a spoke in the system". Westwood opened four shops in London and eventually expanded throughout Britain and the world, selling a varied range of merchandise, some of which promoted her political causes such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, climate change and civil rights groups.

2. Mary Quant (1930 - 2023)

With an HPI of 62.19, Mary Quant is the 2nd most famous British Fashion Designer.  Her biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

Dame Barbara Mary Quant (11 February 1930 – 13 April 2023) was a British fashion designer and icon. She became an instrumental figure in the 1960s London-based Mod and youth fashion movements, and played a prominent role in London's Swinging Sixties culture. She was one of the designers who took credit for the miniskirt and hotpants. Ernestine Carter wrote: "It is given to a fortunate few to be born at the right time, in the right place, with the right talents. In recent fashion there are three: Chanel, Dior, and Mary Quant."

3. Charles Frederick Worth (1825 - 1895)

With an HPI of 57.28, Charles Frederick Worth is the 3rd most famous British Fashion Designer.  His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Charles Frederick Worth (13 October 1825 – 10 March 1895) was an English fashion designer who founded the House of Worth, one of the foremost fashion houses of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He is considered by many fashion historians to be the father of haute couture. Worth is also credited with revolutionising the business of fashion. Established in Paris in 1858, his fashion salon soon attracted European royalty, and where they led monied society followed. An innovative designer, he adapted 19th-century dress to make it more suited to everyday life, with some changes said to be at the request of his most prestigious client Empress Eugénie. He was the first to replace the fashion dolls with live models in order to promote his garments to clients, and to sew branded labels into his clothing; almost all clients visited his salon for a consultation and fitting – thereby turning the House of Worth into a society meeting point. By the end of his career, his fashion house employed 1,200 people and its impact on fashion taste was far-reaching. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has said that his "aggressive self-promotion" earned him the title of the first couturier. Certainly, by 1870, his name was not just known in court circles, but appeared in women's magazines that were read by wide society. He is credited with inventing the hoop skirt and the bustle. Worth raised the status of dressmaking so that the designer-maker also became arbiter of what women should be wearing. Writing on the history of fashion and, in particular, dandyism, in 2002, George Walden said: "Charles Frederick Worth dictated fashion in France a century and a half before Galliano".

4. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon (1863 - 1935)

With an HPI of 52.84, Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon is the 4th most famous British Fashion Designer.  Her biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon (née Sutherland; 13 June 1863 – 20 April 1935) was a leading British fashion designer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who worked under the professional name Lucile. The first British-based designer to achieve international acclaim, Lucy Duff-Gordon was a widely acknowledged innovator in couture styles as well as in fashion industry public relations. In addition to originating the "mannequin parade", a precursor to the modern fashion show, and training the first professional models, she launched slit skirts and low necklines, popularized less restrictive corsets, and promoted alluring and pared-down lingerie. Opening branches of her London house, Lucile Ltd, in Chicago, New York City, and Paris, her business became the first global couture brand, dressing a trend-setting clientele of royalty, nobility, and stage and film personalities. Duff-Gordon is also remembered as a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, and as the losing party in the precedent-setting 1917 contract law case of Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, in which Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo wrote the opinion for New York's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, upholding a contract between Duff-Gordon and her advertising agent that assigned the agent the sole right to market her name. It was the first case of its kind, clothes labelled and sold at a lowered cost in a cheaper market under an expensive "brand name".

5. Sarah Burton (b. 1974)

With an HPI of 35.27, Sarah Burton is the 5th most famous British Fashion Designer.  Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Sarah Jane Burton (née Heard; born 1974) is an English fashion designer. She worked at the Alexander McQueen fashion house from 1997 through 2023, spending her last 13 years at the company as its creative director. She is currently the creative director of Givenchy. Burton designed the wedding dress of Catherine Middleton for her wedding to Prince William in 2011. In 2012, she was named in Time 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world according to Time.