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Donna Karan, Great Report Card (with New Owner Due to Arrive)
By: Godfrey Deeny
NEW YORK, Feb 15, 2002/ FWD/ --- With the fashion house’s new owner Bernard Arnault due to
attend his first Donna Karan runway collection on Friday, the designer was in fine fettle
Sunday as she greeted the fashion press in her flagship Madison Avenue boutique.
When Arnault, the chairman and major shareholder of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury
conglomerate with 50 prestige labels, reaches New York, he’ll be happy to find Karan firmly
on track in their long-term plan of moving the brand from the mass-market up to a fresh level
of exclusivity.
Few things underline that goal better than Karan’s truly splendid store, which positively
shone Sunday.
Situated in a 19th century private house, the boutique is a brilliant blend of airy
proportions, black Venetian plaster, teak tables from Bali and an innovative selection of
beautiful finds Donna picked up on her peripatetic globetrotting.
A quartet of male models stood for inspection on the Portland stone stairway, wearing looks
from Donna’s fall 2002 collection entitled “Manhattan Blues.”
Attired in sleek, ink-colored suits and super coats, they captured the Karan essence of
confident tailoring and cool attitude.
“For fall the collection is all about New York and a man who has a definite sense of style –
his own,” Karan, looking superb in a gathered black cashmere coat, told FWD.
After taking over, LVMH brought in Giuseppe Brusone, an experienced Italian executive and
former CEO of Giorgio Armani, to oversee their new game plan for Karan.
“It’s a really great brand, but it needs to be positioned that bit higher,” Brusone explained
in a conversation in the stylish interior courtyard composed of a black marble floating pool,
elegant statue of Buddha and giant slanted mirror.
Brusone’s drive to “clean up” the house is already bearing fruit.
The house expects to break even this year, after suffering loses of $50 million in 2001.
Karan is also planning a determined expansion abroad, where the brand’s turnover has yet to
match its fashion reputation – two thirds of sales are still in the United States.
Compared with the outlandish amounts paid for luxury European labels in the ‘90s, LVMH paid
a modest sum for Donna Karan, even after upping its original offer to placate irate
shareholders.
Where many luxury labels are sold for twice their annual turnover, Karan, with $620 million
in annual sales, cost the French conglomerate just $650 million.
Clearly enjoying his new job, Brusone posed with Donna for photographers.
“I’m a very lucky woman to work with such a great guy. Now, if only we could do something
about this blue and white shirt,” smiled Karan, playfully adjusting the executive’s collar.
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