The concept most used and misused in reference to Vivienne Westwood's contribution to contemporary menswear is the idea of the dandy. Charles Baudelaire declared the dandy 'the Black Prince of elegance' and to borrow from the quintessential dandy Beau Brummell, if John Bull turns to look in the street the dandy is not well dressed. Westwood's menswear, on the contrary, is a return to the look-at-me idea of the male peacock evident throughout fashion until the early nineteenth-century, when menswear - and men's flamboyance - was swallowed in a sea of blue and grey serge.

Born into the village of Glossop in the rural Pennines, since her childhood Vivienne Westwood has been an adept craft knitter. She often hand-knitted her early samples herself, even extending this practise of perfectionism and handicraft into her mid-nineties shows. These socks reflect that complex technical knowledge, adorned with entirely knitted tassels and three-dimensional flower nosegays, while the sequins and beads which embellish them are not only sewn on, but also knitted into the fabric of the socks themselves.

The embroidery and colour that embellishes these socks is emblematic of the decoration Westwood has brought to her male's wardrobe. But it is also indicative of the fact that Westwood, while pushing the boundaries of elaboration in men's dress, has never lost a her sense of the masculine. These socks are based on kilt-hose, vernacular Scottish attire traditionally worn with the kilt - and each detail on them is taken from that distinctly masculine tradition. This is appropriate, as Westwood has long been obsessed with the dress of the British Isles, naming not only a collection, but an  entire line of clothes 'Anglomania', a direct reference to the eighteenth-century French obsession with English dress. The kilt has featured season in and season out in all Westwood's menswear collections since the first shown on the Milan catwalk for S/S 1996.

Vivienne Westwood's menswear has always been an acquired taste - these socks are certainly no exception. The reason they are interesting is that they manage to pull off the tricky fashion task of being outrageously flamboyant while remaining virile and manly. Vivienne Westwood is a heterosexual female designer in an industry dominated by the homosexual male, and her work with her husband Andreas Kronthaler demonstrates a delicate view of masculinity, although extrovert, that never falls into camp excess or pantomime - a balance very few designers can achieve.