DKNY

DKNY (Donna Karan New York) was born in 1989 as a "diffusion" line by designer Donna Karan, conceived — according to the brand's recurring story — for inspiration by her daughter Gaby: a younger, more affordable and more casual offering compared to the main Donna Karan New York collection, launched on the runway in 1985. From its debut, DKNY built its identity around the energy and rhythm of New York, offering versatile pieces suited to leisure and urban life, at a price point aimed at a broader audience than the designer's high-end line.

Watches arrived later, around 2000, when the brand licensed its name for the production of watch collections: since then Fossil Group — the same company that over the years has also made licensed watches for brands such as Michael Kors, Emporio Armani, Diesel and Burberry — has handled the design, production and distribution of DKNY-branded timepieces in more than sixty countries. DKNY, in other words, has never been a watch manufacture: its role is to lend its name and aesthetic to a product conceived and made by a specialized partner in the fashion-watch industry.

Meanwhile the DKNY fashion house changed ownership several times, remaining independent from the watchmaking agreements: publicly listed since 1996, it was acquired in 2001 by luxury group LVMH and finally passed, in 2016, to G-III Apparel Group, which took over both DKNY and Donna Karan International. The watch license with Fossil Group, by contrast, continued without interruption, developing a catalogue aimed mainly at a female audience and built, in large part, around the names of New York neighborhoods and streets.