Prada SpA agreed to buy Versace for about $1.38 billion in cash, strengthening its position as Italy’s largest fashion group by adding one of the luxury industry’s best-known brands.

​Can you mix Prada with Versace, or is that a fashion faux pas? One iconic Italian fashion brand is buying another — the Prada Group announced this week that it’s buying the luxury design house Versace from fashion group Capri Holdings for about $1.4 billion.

On Thursday, in the biggest luxury deal of the year, Prada announced it was buying Versace for 1.25 billion euros ($1.38 billion) from Capri Holdings, a beleaguered New York group that at one point styled itself as the American answer to the great fashion groups of France.