From her 1975 “gay cowboys” T-shirt to pioneering catwalk collections that challenged gender norms, the late Vivienne Westwood has long been heralded as an LGBT+ icon.
But the fashion house she built over five decades faces serious questions about whether the late designer’s values have endured, after allegations about homophobic bullying by its chief executive, Carlo D’Amario, were upheld by an independent investigation, the Guardian understands.
The Italian executive was accused by an employee in 2023 of using frequent homophobic slurs, bullying and discriminatory behaviour, it can be revealed.
An independent investigation by an employment barrister, which concluded in June 2023 after interviewing eight witnesses, upheld five of the complaints and found that D’Amario had likely broken employment law.
Yet, while the alleged victim of the bullying has left the company, D’Amario remains at the helm of the fashion house and enjoys a six-figure salary, company accounts suggest.
Vivienne Westwood Ltd did not return multiple requests for comment addressed to D’Amario and the company.
‘It looks too gay’
Questions over D’Amario’s performance as the steward of the Vivienne Westwood brand first came to the fore in November last year, when Westwood’s granddaughter – the designer and model Cora Corré – sensationally quit the company.
In her resignation letter, first reported by the Times, Corré accused D’Amario of misusing her grandmother’s designs and contesting trademarks in a way that prevented the Vivienne Foundation – a not-for-profit organisation set up by the designer in 2019 that is separate from the business – from raising charitable funds.
Corré claimed that her grandmother had been “deeply unhappy” about how D’Amario was running the company and wanted him removed as its chief executive but that the Italian had “bullied” Westwood, who died in 2022.
The company did not comment on the allegations at the time.
Now, documents seen by the Guardian raise fresh questions about D’Amario’s conduct, including allegations of bullying behaviour towards staff, discrimination and frequent use of homophobic language.
New allegations about the fashion executive’s behaviour have surfaced after a gay employee, who the Guardian has chosen not to identify, raised an internal grievance about D’Amario’s conduct.
D’Amario, 79, who has run Vivienne Westwood for almost four decades, had given the employee nicknames based on his sexuality, he claimed. The names included Mary Poppins, Mary Fairy and Homo Pomo, it was alleged.
The company called in Paul Livingston, an employment law specialist from Outer Temple Chambers, to conduct an internal investigation.
During interviews conducted by the lawyer, other staff stated that D’Amario had routinely used homophobic nicknames and language.
One said they had heard the term “homo pomo” used regularly, considered it homophobic at the time and “didn’t think it was meant affectionately”.
On another occasion, two witnesses said, D’Amario criticised displays in the company’s shops, saying they looked “too gay”. This comment had “horrified” some staff, according to one witness.
In interviews with Livingston, D’Amario denied all allegations of using homophobic language, saying: “No, in my position the question of gay is the last thing in my brain.”
One witness defended D’Amario, saying that he had never felt him to be homophobic, that “too gay” was commonly used in the fashion industry to mean overly flamboyant and that the Italian had come to his own gay wedding.
The employee suggested that the language barrier could be a factor in “misunderstandings”.
Another said they did not think D’Amario was homophobic.
Ultimately, the independent investigator upheld five allegations against D’Amario and said that the chief executive’s own denials of the alleged behaviour were not “persuasive”.
The lawyer also said that D’Amario had expressed a desire to take witnesses to court or speak to them and at one point asked who was paying for the investigation and what would happen if the company decided it did not want to pay for it.
“I have some concern that this was an attempt by [D’Amario] to put pressure on me as an investigator,” he said.
The report included witness testimony that the investigator did not offer an opinion about because it was not directly relevant to the claim by the employee.
That testimony included further allegations about D’Amario’s behaviour towards his employees.
D’Amario, said one witness, was “about as politically incorrect as you could ever get”.
He would, the witness said, say things such as “all these gay men in the company … you can’t trust them” and “all these gay men, they have no responsibilities”.
Another witness said that D’Amario used the phrase “gay parade” to describe people in the office who were well dressed.
A third alleged that D’Amario had also used racist language when talking about Chinese customers.
“I’m not racist but all your clients are members of the mafia,” D’Amario is alleged to have said to one staff member.
D’Amario denied making the mafia comment in interviews with Livingston. Vivienne Westwood Ltd declined to respond to multiple requests by the Guardian for comment addressed to the company itself and to D’Amario.
‘Excellent’ equality policies – but lack of action?
Westwood’s knack for shaking up the world of fashion was forged on London’s Kings Road, from the shop that she opened in 1971 with punk icon Malcolm McLaren, the manager of bands including the Sex Pistols.
Over five decades, Westwood built an empire that is among the most loved and respected in the fashion industry. It is also among the most profitable.
Based in a studio in south-west London, Vivienne Westwood Ltd has more than 300 employees and reported pre-tax earnings of £44m on £133m of revenues in 2023, according to Companies House records.
As the company’s boss since 1986, first as managing director and latterly as chief executive, D’Amario – a close confidant of Westwood’s – presided over this meteoric growth.
That corporate success went hand in hand with a strong commitment to Westwood’s own values, including activism on the climate crisis and human rights, espoused on the company’s website.
The label has also worn queer allyship on its sleeve, most recently via last year’s partnership with the non-binary singer Sam Smith.
Smith walked the catwalk at Westwood’s show for Paris fashion week in March 2024, showing off its fall/winter collection, to rave reviews from LGBT media outlets.
But the independent investigation into D’Amario’s conduct raises questions about whether the company’s apparent support for the LGBT+ community translated into firm action when it came to its leadership.
In his report, Livingston found that D’Amario’s behaviour in relation to two of the allegations constituted harassment under section 26 of the Equality Act 2010, as well as a breach of the company’s own internal equality policy.
Executives were supposed to complete training on equality, diversity and inclusion, as well as unconscious bias for managers, the report found.
Yet many of the company’s top executives – including D’Amario and Westwood herself – never completed the training because they were not “computer skilled”, the report found.
Vivienne Westwood Ltd’s equality policy was an “excellent” one and would be a “useful starting point” for any future training, Livingstone added.
“It is a matter for the company as to what action should be taken following this report,” he wrote.
The company’s action stopped short of dismissing or demoting D’Amario.
Instead, he appears to have earned a six-figure salary for the year when the report was written, according to company accounts, which state the company’s highest-paid director earned £493,697 for the year to the end of 2023.
Vivienne Westwood Ltd did not respond to questions about what disciplinary measures had been taken against the chief executive.
