Anne Klein

Designer Anne Klein co-founded Anne Klein & Company with Gunther Oppenheim in 1968. Klein died in 1974, with Donna Karan among the designers who stabilized the brand in the years after. Japanese holding company Takihyo Inc. owned the brand from 1973; Kasper A.S.L. acquired it for an estimated $75 million in 1999. Jones Apparel Group won the 2003 bankruptcy auction for Kasper A.S.L. for approximately $204 million, then itself was acquired by Sycamore Partners in 2014. Premier Brands Group held the brand by 2019. WHP Global acquired Anne Klein from Premier Brands on July 17, 2019, as the very first asset on its newly launched brand management platform, with backing from a $200 million Oaktree Capital equity commitment.

WHP's very first acquisition. The brand has cycled through six owners since the founding designer's death in 1974 and now sits at the center of a licensing platform that adds new licensees (furniture, bath and body) almost annually. Manufacturing locations are opaque.