LVMH reported to be planning sale of DKNY

Luxury conglomerate LVMH is said to be targeting a specific buyer to purchase DKNY, a year after its founder Donna Karan stepped away from the company she founded.

LVMH has owned DKNY and Donna Karan International since 2001. It shelved the mainline DKI after Donna Karan stepped away from the business in 2015 to focus on her lifestyle business Urban Zen.

Public School designers Maxwell Osbourne and Dao Yi Chow were installed to head up the younger DKNY brand but, according to a report in the New York Post, sales have been disappointing.

An unnamed source told the US newspaper that LVMH has a particular American buyer in mind for DKNY and is not putting the opportunity out to purchase the brand to the wider market.

“The word is that they have a buyer in mind and have approached a US company to buy the brand, but it is not yet clear if the deal is going forward,” the source said.

LVHM owns a raft of luxury brands in fashion including flagship brand Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Loewe, Fendi and Nicholas Kirkwood. Yesterday it denied rumours that Nicolas Ghesquiere was to be replaced as creative director at Louis Vuitton by Jonathan Anderson who heads up Loewe and his own label JW Anderson.

Donna Karan started her label in 1985 designing clothes for her friends. She went on to become one of the era's most important designers producing clothes that addressed the needs of modern women, in particular her "seven easy pieces" line. She was perhaps most famous for her "cold shoulder" dresses and tops, which have been rediscovered by fashion and have been a key look of Spring/Summer 16.