Coach and Michael Kors, fashion houses that have thus far catered to the "middle market" of the luxury sector, are looking to transform themselves into leading forces in the field, and they could reshape the industry in the process.
Kors said in late July that it would buy the upmarket London-based shoemaker Jimmy Choo for $1.2bn. It declared the deal to be the beginning of a makeover that would turn an ailing American single-brand accessories business into a multilabel global fashion and luxury behemoth.
“Acquiring Jimmy Choo is the beginning of a strategy that we have for building a luxury group that really is focused on international fashion brands,” John D. Idol, the chairman and chief executive of Michael Kors Holdings, said in an interview.
The deal came just two months after Coach’s $2.4bn acquisition of Kate Spade. Coach, Kors’s biggest competitor, has also publicly promoted its ambitions to build itself into what its chief executive, Victor Luis, termed “a new American multibrand accessible luxury organization.”
