Recently, Richemont has seen spectacular growth at Chloé, once considered a secondary business within the conglomerate. Under chairman and chief executive officer Ralph Toledano, Chloé's sales have quadrupled over the last two years and the brand is now considered one of the stars of the group. In the 2006-07 fiscal year, Chloé sales rose more than 50 percent due to an expanded retail network.

Chloé's current designer, Paulo Melim Andersson, showed his second collection for the label on Saturday, and later the house unveiled a signature perfume with licensing partner Coty Prestige. A collection of watches and jewelry is also in the cards for Chloé.

Richemont's plans for Alaïa could not be learned, but it is understood the designer will continue to create his clothing collections. Given the small size of the Alaïa business, Richemont's investment is unlikely to materially affect its financials, sources said.

The designer is said to have been attracted to Richemont because of its commitment to fine art and design through such initiatives as the Cartier Foundation, a permanent contemporary art museum in a Jean Nouvel building in Paris. Alaïa has long harbored ambitions to create a museum for his enormous collection of his own designs, and other historically important clothing. To this day, he continues to mount exhibitions of photography and industrial design in his atrium-like showroom.

Born in Tunisia, Alaïa founded his Paris fashion house in 1979 and gained international fame in the Eighties, thanks to his sexy evening dresses, snug knits and sculpted leathers — not to mention a gaggle of model fans who would walk in his show for free.

He went under the radar in the late Nineties, but shot back to prominence when Prada struck its partnership. The deal was considered an unusual marriage between the hard-driving industrialist Patrizio Bertelli and the stubborn, slow-to-grow artisan.

After attempting to build a multibrand luxury empire via acquisitions, Prada has since sold off not only Alaïa, but also Helmut Lang and Jil Sander to concentrate on its core brands, Prada and Miu Miu, the latter of which showed its collection here Sunday.