Cardi B puffed on a cigarette as she arrived at Vivienne Westwood’s Paris Fashion Week show on Saturday.
During the event, the rapper, 31, was seen walking Irina Shayk down the runway as she modeled the luxury brand’s Spring-Summer 2025 collection.
Cardi wore a busty minidress, in the designer’s signature corset style, with a fishnet bodysuit underneath.
She elevated her height with a pair of sky-high platform boots and accessorized with a small tartan handbag.
Meanwhile, Irina, 38, looked elegant in a plunging white double-breasted blazer and matching wide-leg trousers.
Cardi B puffed on a cigarette as she arrived at Vivienne Westwood’s Paris Fashion Week show on Saturday
The event saw 31-year-old rapper Irina Shayk walking the catwalk as she modeled the luxury brand’s Spring-Summer 2025 collection.
The model’s look was accessorized with a pair of silver flats and a very subtle makeup look.
As fashion queen Vivienne Westwood lay dying, she called fellow designer Jeff Banks to her bedside and made a monumental request: secure her legacy by becoming president of the company she spent decades building.
But less than two years after Dame Vivienne’s death in July, Banks was forced out of the company amid reports of bitter infighting and a boardroom coup that has left the empire in chaos, The Mail on Sunday revealed.
The former BBC Clothes Show presenter was ousted after disagreements over the direction of the fashion house and concerns that the founder’s legacy was under threat, insiders say.
“It’s made House of Gucci look like Play School,” a well-placed source said, referring to the 2021 film about the brutal battle for control of the Italian fashion brand.
On one side of the Vivienne Westwood Ltd split lies Mr Banks, a friend of the late designer’s son Joe Corre. On the other side are Carlo D’Amario, the company’s CEO, and Andreas Kronthaler, Dame Vivienne’s third husband and the label’s creative director.
“There is a mismatch between Vivienne Westwood’s legacy, where it is now and where it is going,” said an insider.
Dame Vivienne rose to fame by creating the punk image of the Sex Pistols in the 1970s and went on to build a £70 million business empire.
Cardi wore a busty mini dress, in the designer’s signature corset style, with a fishnet bodysuit underneath
The singer opted for a dramatic makeup look with a deep purple lipstick
She elevated her height with a pair of sky-high platform boots and accessorized with a small tartan handbag
Meanwhile, Irina, 38, looked elegant in a plunging white double-breasted blazer and matching wide-leg trousers
But towards the end, the designer, who became a Dame in 2006, became frustrated with the way the label was run, sources claim, and was said to be working on a book to vent her irritation.
It was said that she was particularly concerned about the ‘toxicity’ within the company and that some of the designs were not creative enough.
“It reached a point where Vivienne wanted to close it down,” said an insider.
‘She always believed in quality over quantity. She would submit a lot of designs and the complicated, creative things would get overlooked.
“She and her designers would be distraught about all the time they spent creating beautiful creations that would never be made.”
Days before her death in December 2022, at the age of 81, she summoned her longtime friend, Mr. Banks, to her hospital bedside.
“I had the feeling that Cardinal Wolsey was going to see the monarch,” he said later.
Irina walked down the catwalk with her arm around Vivienne’s widower and creative director Andreas Kronthaler
Cardi later joined the designer backstage
Also present was Mary Charteris, who wore a cut-out blouse and trousers
She styled her pink-hued hair in soft waves
Paramore’s Hayley Williams turned heads in dramatic puff-sleeved dress with 18th century-style makeup
Pam Hogg chose a leather-look model
Lucky Love wore a quirky ensemble with very daring trousers
Thalia Besson stuns in a shirt dress and corset
Andreas looked smart in a blue shirt and a striped skirt
Dazed magazine founder Jefferson Hack was accompanied by his wife Anna Cleveland
As they talked, she asked him to protect the brand he helped her create in the late 1980s.
But the MoS has learned that 81-year-old Banks was recently voted off the holding company’s board and is now negotiating the terms of his departure.
The insider said Dame Vivienne would “turn in her grave at the thought of Jeff being pushed out.” Sources claim Kronthaler supported Banks’ ouster, but he declined to comment this weekend.
Vivienne Westwood Ltd did not respond to repeated requests for comment.