Betsey Johnson dresses outside the ''fashion trend loop''.

The 70-year-old designer, whose company recently recovered from bankruptcy after being purchased by fellow designer Steve Madden, still manages to make heads turn in her garish ensembles and enjoys the attention she gets from passers-by's, who stop and stare as she ventures out in public.

She said: ''[Even though I live uptown now New] I still look very punky and funky and out of the fashion trend loop and people enjoy me. They like seeing me and I think I can be pretty entertaining as a person walking down the street.''

Although she didn't attend, the feisty blonde enjoyed the edgy costumes worn at this year's Met Ball - which had the theme of 'Punk: Chaos to Couture - and has several favourite celebrity costumes which stood out for her.

She recalled: ''I thought the best was Madonna. She knows punk; she is that and she showed that she could blend punk and everything else and still rock it. I relate to that, I've been right there and done that and still love ripped fishnets and it shows that punk is timeless.

''The dress I thought was the most punk to me, the dress that I would have worn if I went, was Miley Cyrus in Marc Jacobs. That to me was the most true blue punk of the night - the rest were fashion interpretations of punk.''