Westwood: Queen of the Cat Ladies!

FIREBRAND Vivienne (Photo: Getty Images)

You've got to love devil-horned fashion icon Vivienne Westwood for saying it like it is. At last night's British Fashion Awards, while her fellow fashion swells congratulated themselves with free booze and canapes, Westwood went on one of her vaguely anti-consumerist rants. "Fashion is a life-enhancing activity, and I hope you continue to love it," she said, after being honored with the Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Design Award. "On the other hand, in 100 years we're not even going to have enough oxygen to breathe."

It wasn't the first time Westwood sounded astonishingly like your favorite ancient great aunt after a few too many afternoon sherrys. Last May at the Guardian's Hay Festival, she laid into the art world with an odd play that seemed to blast conceptual artists like Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin for their headline-grabbiness.