Subtle subversion, the stock-in-trade of British fashion, is symbolic of an island nation paradoxically liberated by its boundaries. A nation for whom the uniform is a social signifier, whose tradition of sartorial conformity in the workplace has defined our stereotype throughout this century. A nation thereby often dismissed as one that style forgot.

Yet some of this century's most stylish men and women have been British, from Lady Diana Cooper to Princess Diana, Twiggy to Kate Moss, Grace Coddington to Isabella Blow, Quentin Crisp to Mick Jagger. Our designers dominate the global fashion currency of the late 1990's, and British commentators continue to occupy the most coveted roles in fashion journalism. This trail of influence confounds critics who deplore our refusal to aspire to international fashion propriety. We might buy Armani, but we wear it with TopShop, covet Calvin Klein, but twin it with Oxfam.

A strong sense of personal projection is the fashionable Brit's most defining trait. Perhaps our formative experience of uniforms makes us explore fashion in unique and disparate ways. Whatever the cause, our style icons, commentators and creators are united not by their similarity, but their differences, their personal inflections of fashion.

And what could be more personal—closer to the individual—than underwear? Indeed, what better place to start an exploration of British style than our fashion choices viewed in miniature and up close.

It is symbolic of British diversity that, while many British women were burning their bras in the late 1960s, others were having theirs made-to-measure at Rigby & Peller. Around the same time Mary Quant and Janet Reger were defining the future of British fashion through their polarised approaches to underwear. Reger gave a new dimension to contemporary glamour by radically reinventing lingerie and explicitly marketing mistressy allure, luxury and sensuality. Quant's spirit—anti-elegance, anti-luxury, anti-femininity—came to typify her age and was eminently visible in her athletic, simplified underwear designs. They were both quite shocking—one for sexiness, the other for its opposite.

Contemporary British fashion continues to negotiate the Reger/Quant axis and other opposing style forces with gusto. Our choices as purchasers and wearers of underwear reflect the gamut as much as our choices in outerwear. Inside as well, we dress up: vestal, vampish, boyish, girlish, antique, futuristic, monochrome, contrast, seamless, constructed, flat, bouncy, plain or fancy.

It is Vivienne Westwood, a contemporary of both Reger and Quant, who has most successfully manipulated the fashion climate of the last 25 years by exploiting the vast array of established fashion languages. Subverting traditional uniforms and historical styles, exaggerating their motifs, putting the infrastructure (and the underwear) on display, mixing old in the details with new in the attitude, turning the inside out, Westwood continues to be ground-breaking and typically British.

Where you might least expect it, our non-conformity is also fostered by the new Marks & Spencer "Everywoman" underwear marketing campaign. Holders until recently of 47% of the British underwear market, M&S accept that catering for whatever image a woman wants to perpetuate is crucial to regaining and exceeding that share. Agent Provocateur's Serena Rees acknowledges that the breadth of their range responds to a very British desire to experiment and passion for dressing-up. Manufacturers like Gossard hotly pursue means to alter your shape with underwear, while traditional corset-makers like Rigby & Peller offer the ultimate personal service of couture. As retailers and expert fitters, fluent in the complex language of the bra, Rigby & Peller also insist that a bra wardrobe is the only way to effectively explore the numerous 'looks' available to the modern woman.

Underwear helps us to dress up every day. In city suit (with Agent Provocateur underneath) or Vivienne Westwood (in plain white M&S three-pack mini briefs), by mixing it up we are always more than the sum of our parts.

Project Manager Alice Ciolini