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Michael Kors Is Buying Versace for $2 Billion

Fashion Week surprises usually tend to be focused around designers leaving their posts or assuming new ones, but this season, changes are happening at the highest level at two of the most well-known fashion houses. Michael Kors has announced that it’s set to acquire Versace for approximately $2.12 billion, Business of Fashion reports. The sale is expected to close in late 2019.

Though it may seem like a surprising pairing, it’s part of a larger, ongoing effort on Kors’ part to build a U.S.-based luxury powerhouse, like a stateside version of LVMH (the conglomerate that owns Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Christian Dior, among others) or Kering (parent company of Gucci, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, and more). Last summer, the company bought Jimmy Choo for $1.2 billion, according to the New York Times. With this acquisition, it competes with Tapestry (owner of Coach, Kate Spade New York, and Stuart Weitzman) and PVH Corp. (which operates Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.)

PHOTO: Pietro D’aprano

With Versace under its belt, Michael Kors Holdings Limited will be renamed Capri Holdings, a reference to “the fabled island which has long been recognized as an iconic, glamorous, and luxury destination,” according to a statement from the company. Jonathan Akeroyd and Donatella Versace will remain chief executive and creative director of Versace, respectively. Santo, Donatella’s brother, and Allegra, her daughter, will have a stake in Capri—which, the designer told Business of Fashion, “demonstrates our belief in the long-term success of Versace and commitment to this new global fashion luxury group.”

“The acquisition of Versace is an important milestone for our group,” John Idol, chief executive officer of Michael Kors, told Bloomberg. “We are committed to investing in its growth.”

Celebrity Sightings in New York City - June 4, 2018 — PHOTO: Raymond Hall

Capri Holdings’ plan for Versace is to grow its retail business (from 200 to 300 stores globally), expand its e-commerce, and increase its accessories and footwear business (from its current 35 percent to 60 percent), per Business of Fashion. So fans of the Italian brand’s aesthetic needn’t worry: The rococo-meets-’90s look that has made its most recent collections Instagram sensations will remain, with Donatella still at the helm. (In 2017, Gianni Versace SpA reported 686 million euros in revenue and a return to profit, according to Bloomberg.)

Naturally, the public has strong opinions about the news.

https://twitter.com/tomandlorenzo/status/1044192976392663040

https://twitter.com/bryanboy/status/1044522998517166087

https://twitter.com/KimBhasin/status/1044274028448485377

https://twitter.com/DemetriaLesterC/status/1044472892786786305

https://twitter.com/melanchloelia/status/1044229507417223173

https://twitter.com/MrJeromeTrammel/status/1044200538391425024

Michael Kors and Versace haven’t returned Glamour’s request for comment.

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Michael Kors Will Go Fur-Free in 2018

Michael Kors just gave PETA and animal lovers all over the world the best holiday gift ever. On Friday, the American luxury brand announced that the entire company plans to be fur-free by the end of December 2018, according to a press release. The commitment to replacing animal fur with other alternatives will apply across the entire 36-year-old company, which includes both the Michael Kors brand and Jimmy Choo, which was acquired in a $1.2 billion deal in July 2017. “Due to technological advances in fabrications, we now have the ability to create a luxe aesthetic using non-animal fur,” Kors said in the statement. “We will showcase these new techniques in our upcoming runway show in February.”

The announcement comes just a few months after Kors’ June talk with journalist Alina Cho at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art was interrupted by animal rights activists. According to Women’s Wear Daily, around 20 protestors stormed the stage, formed a circle around Kors and Cho, made “animal-like sounds,” and shouted at the designer for continuing to use fur in his designs. Prior to that, in February, a handful of PETA supporters protested outside the Michael Kors store in NYC’s SoHo with anti-fur signs and a costume meant to look like Kors’s head on the Grim Reaper’s body. “Although PETA has contacted the Michael Kors company numerous times in recent years to let him know that minks, foxes, crocodiles, and other animals are electrocuted, bludgeoned, and skinned alive, he continues to use fur and exotic skins in his designs,” a PETA spokesperson told WWD at the time.

Kors’s decision to go fur-free follows that of Gucci. In October, the luxury brand’s president and CEO Marco Bizzarri announced that their designs would no longer incorporate animal fur, beginning with the Spring 2018 collection, which was presented at Milan Fashion Week in late September. Michael Kors and Gucci join brands like the Net-a-Porter Group, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Stella McCartney, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and Armani, all of which have pledged to go fur-free over the course of the past few decades.

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