Kazakh businesswoman Goga Ashkenazi has taken control of legendary French haute couture firm Vionnet via her Go To Enterprise group, Vionnet said Wednesday.
“An investment agreement has just been concluded… Go To Enterprise will acquire the majority of shares in Vionnet,” a statement said.
“The terms of the deal will be determined according to the situation within the luxury sector of which Vionnet is part,” it said, without providing any figures for the deal.
Vionnet told AFP that there would be no change of management at the company that has been headed by Italian Matteo Marzotto since 2009.
The fashion house was created in 1912 by Madeleine Vionnet, considered one of the greatest French designers for her innovations which freed women’s bodies from the constraints of the corset.
It went into liquidation in 1940 and the brand was then bought by the Lummen family in 1988.
The company had a turnover of 7.3 million euros in 2011 and is to present its latest fashion collection in Paris in October.
Ashkenazi lives in London and owns several gold mines. She remains close to tycoon Timur Kulbayev with whom she had had a child and who is the son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Goga Ashkenazi takes control of French fashion house Vionnet
