Versace performed an about-turn on Friday as it announced its chief executive was to quit the Italian fashion house just days after trying to stamp out talk of a boardroom rift.

The struggling design house, which less than two weeks ago issued a statement “unanimously and categorically” denying the existence of friction between Giancarlo di Risio, Versace’s chief executive, and Donatella Versace, the label’s creative director, issued a brief statement saying that Mr di Risio was indeed to go.