She also worked as a fashion academic, first at Central Saint Martins and later at the Royal College of Art, where she was appointed a senior fellow in 2011.
She attended Harrow Art School where, as she recalled in an interview for Very magazine, she learned many skills including running up a frock in a couple of hours to wear for the evening's clubbing in Soho.
[2] While still a student, Brown earned money creating fashion drawings for national publications, including The Times, The Observer, Petticoat and 19.
[1][2] At this stage, this was among the hippest brands in London and with an extraordinary boutique in Wigmore Street described in colourful detail by The Times' fashion editor Prudence Glynn in 1969: "Ingress, or rather descent, is through the jaws of a dragon and you expect to find yourself in a salon with a digestive tract decor.
[1] The shop was a testing ground for new ideas and was described by The Times journalist Anthony King-Deacon as effectively a couture house, the key differences being the ready-to-wear designs, the limited choice of sizes and the low prices.
Turnaround on designs was rapid – as little as two weeks – and men's and women's clothes were made up in the same factory and in similar materials to reduce costs.
"[2] In 1976, Barnett and Brown set up in business together in Macklin Street, Covent Garden, in a space loaned rent free by Jeff Banks.
[8] The article featured designs by Brown, including a wraparound coat in mohair and jodhpurs with matching top with a ruff collar made of pink moire.
Conceived as a showcase of British fashion talent, the programme also included designs by Norman Hartnell, Zandra Rhodes, Murray Arbeid, Janice Wainwright and Kaffe Fasset.
[12][13][14] Writing in The Guardian, Catherine Wilson said the credit for a turnaround in M&S profits (at record levels in 1993) was with Brown, who had brought in a team of six designers and was using Betty Jackson and Paul Smith as consultants.
[citation needed] Brown taught many of the next generation of fashion designers during her tenure at Central Saint Martins and later at the Royal College of Art, where she was made a senior fellow in 2011.
[18] Brown's involvement in shaping high fashion's move from elite couture into edgy styles for mass manufacturing – notably with Stirling Cooper – was profiled in an interview for the Design Museum's 2009 exhibition Super Contemporary.