Atwood's Gone Madden

Women's Wear Daily (WWD) is reporting that shoe emporium Steve Madden has acquired fellow shoemaker Brian Atwood's luxury shoe business from The Jones Group.

This move is a good look for New York native Madden, who has operated as a contemporary fashion shoe business since opening in 1990, and will insert his company into the growing luxury shoe market.  This is also good for Atwood- infamous for designing sexy architectural sky scraper heels and who also studied design under the late Gianni Versace- as he is planning on a brand expansion and will eventually branch off into handbags, apparel and a men's collection, which will hopefully be ready to ship in time for Spring 2015.

The Jones Group, who also owns designer, classic and contemporary brands like Stuart Weitzman, Robert Rodriguez, Nine West, Jones New York, Rachel Rachel Roy and Anne Klein among others has been busy unloading underperforming brands and is responsible for the closing of Atwood's Manhattan flagship store (it was the property of the Jones Group) as well as the dismissal of designer Rachel Roy's namesake label.

*Fun fact* Steve Madden served two and half years for fraud and was portrayed in the movie "The Wolf of Wall Street"... read more about that here.