John D. Idol is a man who loves a gold logo — but it appears the fashion exec has lost his Midas touch, according to multiple sources.
The multi-millionaire CEO of Capri Holdings made his fortune at America’s biggest brands, from Donna Karan to Michael Kors, before buying Italian design house Versace for $2.1 billion in September 2018.
Now, the fashion industry — rife with peacocking and gossip — has reacted with horror to the news that Idol “pushed out” Donatella Versace as creative director of the brand her brothers Gianni and Santo launched in 1978.
For some, though, it comes as no shock.
“He’s a God-complex, chest-beating, bulldozer of a man,” said the insider of Idol.
Idol reportedly pushed the flamboyant Versace brand to create a monogram similar to Michael Kors’ “MK” or Louis Vuitton’s “LV” and to sideline its iconic Medusa logo in favor of a more stately Baroque V — while increasing prices, just as the luxury market took a post-pandemic downturn.
“He will wrap your entire brand up into that gold medallion [style] he loves to hang off handbags. He thinks every brand has the same formula,” said the fashion insider. The Capri spokesperson noted this was a management team decision.
However, “He’s driven brands completely into the ground, like Jimmy Choo,” said the insider. “He’s taken the heart out of them.”
The Capri spokesperson denied this, saying Capri had made significant investments in Jimmy Choo.
Idol bought the shoe brand for $1.2 billion in July 2017, and WWD has reported it’s now up for sale — as is Versace, which is reportedly in talks to be scooped up by Prada.
It all comes after Idol’s bid to sell Capri — which also owns Michael Kors — for $8.5 billion to Tapestry, the parent of such prominent US brands as Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman. That deal flopped last year over antitrust issues.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Capri Holdings is now valued at roughly $2.3 billion—only slightly more than what the company paid for Versace. It was also reported that Idol saw his pay package shrink by 26.5%, to $10.5 million, in 2023 as the company struggled with declining sales and profits
“Maybe he’s been knocked off his perch by the Tapestry deal not having gone through,” the fashion insider added.
Idol has been in the fashion business for decades, serving in the mid 1990s as Group President of Ralph Lauren and joining Donna Karan International Inc. as CEO in 1997, replacing Karan herself. There, he was credited with turning around the financially-troubled brand — and wooing LVMH as a buyer in 2001.
Along with the Hong Kong-based private equity firm Sportswear Holdings, Idol acquired the Michael Kors brand for $100 million in 2003 — when its revenue totaled $20 million — with plans to position it as a classic American “jet-set” lifestyle brand.
The outlook was rosy at first. The company’s 2011 IPO broke records and its shares jumped 25% upon debuting on the New York Stock Exchange. That was good news for Idol, who took on the CEO role and later sold some of his stock for more than $400 million. He still retains 1% of Michael Kors shares.
“When Michael Kors went public, the brand was on fire. Every quarter outperformed the previous one. Kors was like being in a Lamborghini without your seatbelt on while smoking a cigarette,” retail analyst Gabriella Santaniello told The Post.
Although the Kors business initially boomed, sales have been on the decline in recent years.
“The undoing of Kors was its discounting” during a “giddy, heady time that lasted around five years,” said one former employee.
Idol was warned multiple times not to discount, according to the employee. “He was told, ‘You’re over distributed,’ but all he could see was the cash register ringing.”
(The Capri spokesperson said pricing strategy was a management team decision.)
At one point, the employee added, an industry expert compared the brand to Duane Reade — because the shops were on every corner and department stores were bursting with Kors handbags.
“Our issue is we have pricing that is out of line for what the customer’s expectation is,” Idol told analysts and investors in a conference call after the Tapestry sale failed in November 2024. “They’re being much more choiceful today than they were two years ago.”
As Business of Fashion pointed out, Capri’s fortunes “begin and end with Michael Kors” — which made up 70% of the group’s net sales in its most recent fiscal year. Global revenue is now at $3.5 billion.
“When the company started to falter, instead of paying attention to the Kors brand and fixing it, [Capri] acquired other brands. It’s going to be very hard for Capri to come back from all of this,” Santaniello said. “They readily admitted [during the government hearings] that during the acquisition phase, they didn’t pay attention to their designs. They thought the merger was a sure thing.”
After a judge blocked the deal, Capri’s stock tanked by nearly 50% and has remained flat.
The Tapestry failure also showed how “very vindictive” Idol can be, the former employee told The Post, pointing to the departure of Kors former CEO Cedric Wilmotte.
The exec testified at FTC hearings last September over the planned acquisition, in which he admitted the company’s turnaround efforts had fallen short — and added that Tapestry was better suited than Capri to run Kors, according to a WWD report.
But it was an email to his wife, which became part of the public record, that may have done in Wilmotte, the employee said.
In it, the then CEO wrote: “US [business] is a disaster and this is all because of JI [Idol] trying to maintain top line with discounting all day long versus refocusing on creating brand heat.”
After 16 years with the company, Wilmotte was terminated in November. The Capri spokesperson said his Wilmotte’s departure came down to Capri’s re-organization and expense-reduction initiatives.
Insiders also say Idol loved showing off his proximity to the glitzy side of fashion. Onlookers described him looking the “cat who got the cream” when he arrived “arm in arm” with Donatella at the 2019 Met Gala.
“We were at a fashion show, which is a $2 million event for just a six-minute presentation,” the former Kors employee recalled. “John allowed older white dudes in the dressing room where the models were getting their hair and makeup done. Michael could be freaking out and John would have these dopes back there wandering around.”
The former employee claimed that such backstage access helped Idol gain membership to an exclusive golf club in Southampton, not far from his $18 million estate.
“John would say ‘I want to get into a golf club on Long Island, the hardest one to get into,’” the employee said. “He got in … of course.”
Another source told us Idol is a member at Shinnecock Hills in Southampton. The Capri spokesperson said the company does not discuss Idol’s personal matters.
Insiders said that Idol’s relationship with Kors the designer had at times been “volatile” and “strained,” despite the recent opening of a new Michael Kors boutique on Madison Avenue.
“I think Michael was planning to leave after the sale to Tapestry, but I doubt that he can just walk now,” said the former employee.
Denying any volatility, the Capri spokesperson said, “Mr. Idol and Mr. Kors have had a strong partnership since 2003, which continues today.” A rep for Kors did not respond for comment.
Over at Versace, Idol — who has a $21.6 million Palm Beach mansion — pushed Donatella to create clothes that, according to the Wall Street Journal, were “more Palm Beach than South Beach.” This reportedly led to a frantic clash as, when the designs flopped, Donatella tried to salvage things by returning to her more familiar sexy style.
Multiple sources have also said that Emmanuel Gintzburger, who Capri hired as CEO of Versace in 2022, had clashed with Donatella. The designer did not respond for comment.
She will now be replaced by Dario Vitale, who was design director at the Miu Miu brand that is owned by the Prada Group.
“The whole fashion world feels [Idol] underestimated Donatella’s power and John Idol may have met his match here — and he really needed to,” the fashion insider said. “John has treated everybody so badly, that I hope this is a reckoning.”
