With the recent sale of Versace to the American Michael Kors, many of you have wondered which of the large Italian fashion brands are actually still Italian owned? Most will know that the two main French luxury groups Kering and LVMH own some of the biggest fashion brands worldwide, but of the brands founded in Italy, that are still run by Italians, and often still even by the same founding family, are not as rare as one might think.
FashionWindows has put together an overview of the main brands to give you an insight into who owns them, and if sold, when and for what amount the deals went for if known.
International
- Year founded: 1978
- Founder: Gianni Versace
- Year of Sale: 2018
- Acquired by: Michael Kors – United States
- Amount: 2.1 Billion USD
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- Year founded: 1921
- Founder: Guccio Gucci
- Year of Sale: 1999
- Acquired by: Kering – France
- Amount: 3 Billion USD
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- Year founded: 1925
- Founder: Adele Casagrande with husband Edoardo Fendi
- Year of Sale: 1999
- Acquired by: LVMH France
- Amount: 850 million USD
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- Year founded: 1911
- Founder: Johan Fila
- Year of Sale: 2007
- Acquired by: Fila Korea Ltd. Korea
- Amount: undisclosed
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- Year founded: 1957
- Founder: Valentino Garavani
- Year of Sale: 1998
- Acquired by: Mayhoola – Qatar
- Amount 700 million EURO
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Year founded: 1966
- Founder: Renzo Zengiaro and Michele Taddei
- Year of Sale: 2001
- Acquired by: Kering – France
- Amount: 156 million USD
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- Year founded: 1884
- Founder: Sotirio Bulgari
- Year of sale: 2012
- Acquired by: LVMH – France
- Amount: 4.3 Billion Euros
Besides those listed above, La Perla, Brioni, Fiorucci, Krizia, Miss Sixty, Pucci,and YOOX are all now owned by international companies. So what about those that are still Italian run?
Italian
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- Year founded: 1913
- Founder: Mario Prada
- Run by: Miuccia Prada and her husband Patrizio Bertelli
- HQ: Milan
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- Year founded: 1975
- Founder: Giorgio Armani & Sergio Galeotti
- Run by: Giorgio Armani
- HQ: Milan
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- Year founded: 1985
- Founder: Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana
- Run by: Alfonso Dolce, CEO
- HQ: Milan
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- Year founded: 1982
- Founder: Massimo Osti
- Run by: Carlo Rivetti
- HQ: Originally from Ravarino, with headquarters in Milan
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- Year founded: 1983
- Founder: Franco Moschino
- Run by: Angela Missoni
- HQ: Milan
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- Year founded: 1952
- Founder: Achille Maramotti
- Run by: Luigi Maramotti
- HQ: Reggio Emilia, Italy
Also the brands Salvatore Ferragamo, Etro, and Missoni, are all still Italian run.
Ermenegildo Zegna is a brand that has done the opposite move by acquiring the American brand Thom Browne earlier this year.
Another brand that has switched shores, so to speak, is Moncler, the originally French outdoor brand founded in 1955 was bought in 2003 by the Italian entrepreneur Remo Ruffini, and the brand is today by all accounts considered to be Italian.
There you have it, so what do we take away from all this, well it is interesting when you look a bit more closely at the brands themselves. When looking deeper, most of the brands that are now under conglomerate umbrellas have a good reason for being there. Brands like Gucci and Fendi, have a width that is really benefited by the backend systems these big groups offer. Huge, worldwide distribution and sales almost require it, where brands like Prada and Stone Island, though by no means small, can be described as running a more boutique-like approach, where smaller collections, with a greater focus on technical developments, are better handled in a more in-house environment. As the world gets ever smaller, in terms of more andmore people and newer territories wanting to be able to acquire luxury goods, the demand, while still retaining the high quality, can often only be met with the backing of large fashion groups, and is simply an inevitability of the global luxury goods market expansion.
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