Breaking: LVMH Sells Donna Karan

Rumours began to swirl last week that LVMH was looking to sell Donna Karan International Inc, which it has owned since 2001. Today, Business of Fashion confirmed that a sale has taken place, with the company being sold to US-based G-III Apparel for an enterprise value of just over Dhs2.3 billion. 

 

G-III currently looks after Calvin Klein and Karl Lagerfeld, and will now own the Donna Karan and DKNY brands from as early as January next year. Toni Belloni, the managing director of LVMH said of the sale, “When G-III approached us about acquiring the brand, we concluded that the time was right.”

 

Donna Karan stepped down as chief designer from her eponymous brand, which she founded in 1984, last year in order to focus on her new line of accessories and home decor called Urban Zen. Public School‘s Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow were brought in to look after DKNY after LVMH decided to focus its energy on the younger line. The New York Post reports that LVMH began looking for a buyer for the brand this year however after “months of disappointing performance.” 

 

It is not clear yet whether Maxwell and Dao-Yi will move with the brand.