Rumor has it, the famed fashion designer relinquished control of her company and gave it to fellow designer Jeff Banks and husband Andreas Kronthaler before her passing.
- Dec 31, 2022
AceShowbiz - Dame Vivienne Westwood allegedly gave control of her £68 million business empire to a close designer friend and her third husband days before her death. According to Mail Online, the Godmother of Punk, who passed away on Thursday, December 29 aged 81, gave the reigns of her clothing company to fellow designer Jeff Banks, 79.
According to a filing to Companies House on December 22, Jeff is now a director of Vivienne Westwood Ltd with the firm holding cash and assets of more than £50 million. Vivienne's third husband Andreas Kronthaler, 56, was on the same day made a director and secretary of his wife's property business worth £18 million, according to Mail Online.
The outlet added Vivienne's two sons apparently have no formal role in their mother's business but may inherit some of her £150 million fortune.
She had previously spoken about her desire to retain control of her fashion house, declaring, "I own my own company, so I've never had businessmen telling me what to do or getting worried if something doesn't sell."
"I've always had my own access to the public, because I started off making my clothes for a little shop and so I've always had people buying them. I could always sell a few, even if I couldn't sell a lot, and somehow my business grew because people happened to like it."
Jeff - a two-time winner of the British Designer of the Year who also found fame presenting the BBC's "The Clothes Show" for 14 years until 2000 - became close friends with Vivienne in the mid-1980s, when he helped her to establish her fashion label.
Punk fashion pioneer and anti-establishment campaigner Vivienne is also survived by her son Ben, born 1963, whom she shared with Derek Westwood, and Joseph Corre, born 1967, whom she had with Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren.
Her death was announced on the official social media page of her fashion house, which said she died peacefully surrounded by her family in Clapham, south London.
