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Donatella Versace has stepped down as creative director of her family’s eponymous fashion house after almost three decades in the role, as its US owner Capri Holdings edges closer to sell the Italian luxury company.
In an Instagram post on Thursday the designer said she was “thrilled” to hand over to the “next generation”, with Miu Miu’s design director Dario Vitale taking on her role from April.
The update comes as Prada group, which owns Miu Miu, has emerged as the frontrunner to buy the rival Milanese fashion label.
After months of on-off talks between Prada and Capri, which had included discussions over Donatella Versace’s future, according to people familiar with the talks, the two companies are nearing a deal that could value the label at €1.5bn. Capri owns brands including Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo.
Donatella Versace will stay with the company as chief brand ambassador, according to a statement from Capri. The move is the latest in a series of creative director changes across several luxury fashion houses including at Gucci, Bally and Jil Sander.
The reshuffles come as fashion houses grapple with falling revenues amid a broader luxury slowdown, marked by muted consumer responses to new collections and higher prices.
Prada has bucked that trend, in part due to the booming success of its Miu Miu brand, named after the nickname of its founder Miuccia Prada.
Miuccia Prada, who is the creative director of her eponymous Prada brand and the controlling shareholder of the fashion group, and her son Lorenzo Bertelli have been keen to grow the group’s size. Industry insiders have long considered Versace, whose baroque style contrasts with Prada’s traditionally sober one, a good addition to the group.
Prada and Versace previously held merger discussions at the end of the 1990s. People familiar with the talks said the “clash between the great personalities” involved in the potential merger had derailed those discussions.
Capri has been looking to sell Versace for some time. The plan accelerated last year when it called off a planned $8.5bn merger with rival Tapestry, which owns Coach and other affordable luxury brands, after it was blocked by a US judge in October over antitrust concerns.
Donatella Versace’s exit was seen as “a necessary step” for the talks to conclude in a deal this time, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. “It is impossible for a member of a brand’s founding family to work for another family-controlled fashion group,” another person with knowledge of the market said.
“Donatella and Miuccia are both larger than life characters though in very different ways, this is the best outcome for both [in the next context of a merger],” the person added.
Versace said the “true genius” was her late brother Gianni, who was fatally shot in Miami in 1997. “Carrying on Gianni’s legacy has been the greatest honour of my life,” she said.
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