Viktor & Rolf's Founders Sold Their Last Stake to OTB

Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren have watched their company change hands in three steps without leaving it. OTB, the Italian group behind Diesel, bought a majority in 2008, went to 70% in 2019, and on June 4, 2026 bought the rest, per The Fashion Law. The house is now wholly OTB’s. The two founders stay on as creative directors.

At a glance

The art-school house

Horsting and Snoeren met at the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design in 1988, graduated in 1992 and moved to Paris, per Wikipedia. The fashion industry ignored them at first; the art world did not, and museums such as the Groninger Museum collected their garments. They added ready-to-wear in 2000 and menswear from 2003 to 2009, and in 2015 stopped ready-to-wear to concentrate on couture. Their fragrances, Flowerbomb from 2004 and Spicebomb from 2012 among them, are made with L’Oréal Luxe, The Fashion Law notes.

Three steps to full ownership

OTB came in with a majority in 2008, took its holding to 70% in 2019, and in 2026 acquired the remainder, making Viktor & Rolf wholly owned, The Fashion Law reports. Neither side disclosed terms at any stage that we could find. What did not change is the job: the founders’ creative-director agreement was extended in 2025, a year before the final sale.

What founders can take from it

• A staged sale lets founder and buyer test each other. Eighteen years passed between OTB’s first stake and its last.
• The role can be negotiated separately from the shares. The creative-director agreement was extended before the founders sold their remaining equity.
• A design-led house can thrive inside a group. OTB’s portfolio of founder-named labels, Maison Margiela and Jil Sander among them, is the model Viktor & Rolf now sits in.

Related founders

• LVMH Sold Marc Jacobs. The Designer Stays Creative Director.: the reverse move: a group selling a founder’s label.
• Giambattista Valli Bought His Brand Back From the Pinaults: a couturier going the other way in the same month.
• Founder Exits of 2026: 23 Deals and What Founders Kept: the year’s founder ownership deals in one table.

Sourcing: the June 4, 2026 acquisition, OTB’s 2008 and 2019 stakes, the 2025 extension of the founders’ agreement, the product categories, the L’Oréal Luxe fragrance partnership and OTB’s portfolio are per The Fashion Law’s 2026 fashion and luxury deal timeline. The founders’ biographies, the 1993 founding, the Amsterdam base, early museum acquisitions, the ready-to-wear, menswear and couture history and fragrance launch years are per Wikipedia’s Viktor & Rolf article and its citations. No portrait is used.