While American retailers slide into bankruptcy The Carlyle Group increased its bet on Italian fashion brand Twin Set--Simona Barbieri. Carlyle bought the remaining 10% from Barbieri who will leave TwinSet's board and resign from her Creative Designer position.
Twinset is a key investment in the fashion and clothing sector at European level, combined with Golden Goose Deluxe Brand and Hunkemoller, following the (Carlyle's) previous investment in Moncler.--Marco De Benedetti
Payless Shoes serves customers with less disposable income. Golden Goose serves the top 0.1%. TwinSet markets its products as "accessible luxury."
As TwinSet's co-founder it would interesting to hear Simona Barbieri's take on private equity practices. I'm sure she's experienced much since Carlyle bought 72% of the company in 2012, later upping ownership to 90%. TwinSet took on additional debt to fund a Carlyle dividend in 2014.
It's likely Carlyle purchased her silence in addition to the final 10% stake.
Update 10-11-17: Carlyle hired new designers for Twin Set, the same week it announced an investment in skater style retailer Supreme.
Update 11-29-19: Carlyle sources expect Golden Goose to go for 1.4 billion Euros. Carlyle valued GG at 400 million Euros when it purchased the company in March 2017. That $1 billion increase is a 250% rise in the value of GG in two and a half years. That's the kind of profit Carlyle wants from Taylor Swift's music.
Update 1-30-20: Carlyle hired JP Morgan to help sell Twin Set.
Update 11-18-20: Carlyle hired JP Morgan to help sell Dutch lingerie maker Hunkemoller.
