Cora Corré, the granddaughter of Vivienne Westwood, has quit as campaigns manager at the late designer’s company and called for its chief executive Carlo D’Amario to be removed.

She sent a letter to all staff announcing her departure from the firm that Westwood founded back in 1993 and in it she also said that Westwood had been unhappy at the way the company was being run before her death in 2022.

She said in a letter seen by The Times that “it was [Westwood’s] wish that … D’Amario was removed and the company was managed in a way that respected her values.”

Her move comes shortly after the Vivienne Foundation, the non-profit organisation that Corré co-founded with her grandmother to support the causes Westwood believed in, complained about the use of archive designs it reportedly owns in a recent Vivienne Westwood collaboration launched with skate brand Palace.

The late designer is said to have transferred all of her intellectual property and copyrights to the Vivienne Foundation that was set up in 2019.

In a statement shared with FashionNetwork.com, the Vivienne Foundation said: “The granddaughter of Vivienne Westwood, Cora Corré has resigned from her role within the Vivienne Westwood company. She will now focus on continuing her grandmother’s legacy through the Vivienne Foundation, in her role as a director, and campaign and projects manager.”

And Corré added: “There has been much confusion around my current role within the Vivienne Westwood company. Although, the company bares my grandmother’s name, I do not feel at this time that it reflects her values. Vivienne taught me to always stand up for what is right and I want to stay true to that. She created the Foundation in 2019 to pursue her activism outside of the constraints placed on her by the managing director of the company.

“Due to a breakdown in relations between the Vivienne Westwood company and the Vivienne Foundation, my role within the company has become untenable. Moving forward, I will focus my energy on honouring my grandmother’s legacy through the Vivienne Foundation and continuing the work that was so important to her. I will be forever grateful to all the lovely people I got to know over the past few years, and to those that I’ve known far longer, sadly you can’t say I didn’t try. This is not the end but a moment to move forward.” 

Earlier this year, Westwood’s close friend Jeff Banks, who was brought in as a director shortly before her death, was ousted from the business. Reports at the time spoke of “bitter in-fighting” and said his exit was part of him being on the wrong side of a tussle for control with her husband and Westwood creative director Andreas Kronthaler and D’Amario.