Versace, the Italian fashion house, said on Monday night it would “immediately” begin implementing a strategy to fight the downturn in its fortunes as it sought to quash speculation about a boardroom rift that had called the future of its chief executive into question.

After a meeting in Milan, the board of the fashion house said it “unanimously and categorically denies the existence of friction” between Giancarlo di Risio, Versace’s chief executive, and Donatella Versace, the label’s creative director, over the need to cut costs because of the global economic crisis.