Back in January, Vivienne Westwood denounced any links to the documentary about her – titled Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist – directed by Lorna Tucker. At the time, the designer said that the film didn’t centre around her interest in activism, and instead mostly featured archive fashion footage.

Now, Westwood’s eldest son, Ben Westwood, has released a statement to Dazed further expressing the disappointment in the film that premiered at Sundance Film Festival and is currently showing in cinemas around London. “She chose to miss the real story,” he said. Going on to say: “Let alone illustrating Vivienne’s world view or her environmental work, the film does not even show her fashion properly.”

Three years in the making – including access to Vivienne’s home, family and friends, and archive material – Ben believes the footage that Vivienne wanted to highlight, around her activism, “is on the cutting room floor.” To make amends, the designer’s son has suggested that Tucker returns all of the footage to the Westwood family and makes a generous donation to one of Vivienne’s charities – “One of the many charities you will not have heard about in Lorna’s film,” he says.

We have reached out to Tucker’s representative for comment and will update when we hear back.

Read the full statement below:

Just recently, I have had the chance to watch the film that Lorna Tucker has been making for the last three years, about my mother Vivienne & I would like to make the following statement:

Lorna asked Vivienne if she could make a film about her activism, Vivienne agreed because she wanted to help her. Vivienne asked for no money & everybody was extremely generous with Lorna. She had access to Vivienne’s home & her family & friends & we provided her with personal photos & archive material.

But what was Lorna really doing for those three years? She had access to everything & yet she chose to focus on what was not important.

She chose to miss the real story.

Let alone illustrating Vivienne’s world view or her environmental work, the film does not even show her fashion properly.

Vivienne had done great work in fashion during those three years of filming, but she hasn’t shown any of it.

That film is on the cutting room floor.

I would like to suggest that Lorna returns all of that footage to us, as it is the only record of these events & that since she is bound to make money from this film, that she makes a generous donation to one of Vivienne’s charities, one of the many charities you will not have heard about in Lorna’s film.

UPDATE: Lorna Tucker has responded with the following comment: “I have the utmost respect for Vivienne’s activism, which is integrated into the film as the passionate driving force of all she does. As a filmmaker, I wanted to create an authentic and entertaining portrait of an icon to excite and engage viewers. A significant level of access to Vivienne and her team was required in order to achieve this ambition and for this I am hugely grateful. I remain extremely proud of the film and thrilled by reactions from audiences around the world, who continue to be inspired by Vivienne’s inimitable energy and tenacity as captured in Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist.”