Vivienne Westwood's Son Fears Last Collection May Never Be Released Amid Family Dispute
A legal battle over the iconic designer's legacy and intellectual property rights is casting a shadow over a collection Westwood was working on before her death.
The last collection conceived by the late fashion icon Vivienne Westwood may never see the light of day due to a protracted legal dispute between her family and the fashion house that bears her name. Westwood's son, Ben Westwood, expressed fears that the collection, which he was co-designing with his mother before her passing in December 2022, is now in limbo.
"At the moment, that's all up in the air," Ben Westwood, 63, told Eden Confidential. "There's one very big hurdle to jump over before I can do anything with that at all. So maybe it never gets done, I don't know. It's all in limbo."
The ongoing legal feud centers on the rights to Westwood's distinctive orb logo and early designs. The Vivienne Westwood company has filed a copyright and intellectual property claim against The Vivienne Foundation, a charitable foundation where Ben Westwood serves as a director alongside Westwood's other son, Joseph Corre, his daughter Cara, and Westwood's widower, Andreas Kronthaler.
The foundation, however, maintains that the designer transferred the copyrights to them prior to her death. Cara Westwood had previously accused the company's chief executive, Carlo D'Amario, of bullying.
Ben Westwood, who transitioned to fashion at the age of 45 after a career as an erotic photographer, had launched his own label, The Ben Westwood Lines, in 2009. This venture featured collections inspired by tribal culture and pirates. His collaboration with his mother on her final collection marks a potential turning point in the long-standing legal conflict, with the outcome remaining uncertain.