On paper, they have about as much in common as Tinky Winky and Brian Eno. Yet to the befuddlement of many, the friendship between 69-year-old Donatella Versace and 75-year-old Miuccia Prada goes back 15 years or more.

The price Prada has agreed to pay is a big discount to the roughly $2.15 billion including debt that US-based Capri, then known as Michael Kors, paid for Versace in 2018 when it was sold by the Versace family and Blackstone.

Italian fashion house Prada announced Thursday it had reached a deal with US group Capri Holdings to buy its flashy rival Versace for 1.25 billion euros (AUD$2.2 billion).