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Is There Life After Versace?

After redefining the affordable luxury category, Capri C.E.O. John Idol tried to create an American-based alternative to LVMH—a roll-up of high-end brands, some healthier than others, to compete on supply chain logistics and marketing. But after the jettisoned merger with Tapestry and the sale of Versace, the unwinding of his would-be empire is filled with industry lessons.

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Michael Kors, John Idol
Kors, though, is trickier: Idol would love to sell it, of course, but he will also want the best deal for his longtime partner, who remains a significant shareholder in the business. Photo: Benjamin Lozovsky/BFA.com
Lauren Sherman
January 8, 2026

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Over the past few months, I’ve often thought of a conversation I had with Capri C.E.O. John Idol, in 2019, shortly after he had overpaid $2.1 billion for Versace—a price that represented 2.5x revenue at the time, and 22x EBITDA. And yet the money itself seemed almost immaterial to Idol, who had recently picked up WAG shoe brand Jimmy Choo for $1.2 billion, and appeared well on his way to a manifest destiny of creating a mini LVMH-style supergroup of luxury brands based in the U.S. After years of playing a pivotal role in the development of the accessible luxury market—the province of $200 handbags—Idol said that he foresaw pure luxury as the way forward. “We felt that the luxury market will have the longest sustained growth over the next 20 to 30 years,” he told me at the time.

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