Style Billionaires: These Are The Wealthiest People Behind The Biggest Names in Fashion Today

LuxuryFebruary 12, 2020

The fashion industry is one of the largest segments of the world’s economy. In fact, sources estimate that it is currently worth about $2.5 trillion, making the big guys behind the business incredibly wealthy. What more, the 15 richest fashion tycoons in the world today reportedly have a collective net worth of $361.4 billion. These are the six that took the top spots on the list.

Luxottica’s Leonardo Del Vecchio

Italian businessman Leonardo Del Vecchio is currently chairman of Luxottica, which is best known as one of the world’s leading producers of prescription lenses and sunglasses. The 84-year-old fashion magnate has an estimated net worth of $20 billion. Among the popular brands under the company’s helm are Oakley and Ray-Ban.

H&M’s Stefan Persson

Persson’s father, Erling, founded the clothing brand back in 1947. He serves as the chairman of H&M today

With fast fashion being more popular than ever, it’s no surprise that brands like H&M are making bank in this area of the fashion industry. Proof of this is Swedish businessman Stefan Persson’s growing fortune, which has reportedly reached the $25 billion.

Nike’s Phil Knight

It’s quite difficult to imagine the sports world without Nike shoes and apparel, and for good reason. Originally called Blue Ribbon Sports, the brand has managed to cement itself as one of the biggest and most recognizable companies ever. All these thanks to the hard work of its founder and former CEO Phil Knight. And his efforts are well compensated judging from his $29 billion net worth.

Kering’s Francois Pinault

Pinault is married to Hollywood actress Salma Hayek

French businessman Francois Pinault’s life is one of the most inspiring rags-to-riches stories in the business world. After overcoming an impoverished childhood and dropping out of high school, the 83-year-old Kering founder used genius business moves to eventually be able to start his own luxury goods retailer PPR (now Kering).

The Paris-based group sells expensive brands such as Stella McCartney and Gucci. Pinault is reportedly worth $34 billion.

Zara’s Amancio Ortega

Another school dropout success story is Spanish businessman Amancio Ortega. The 83-year-old magnate is the founder of the Inditex fashion group, which owns the popular fast-fashion retailer Zara.

After spending the 1960s trying his hand at designing clothes, he eventually created the brand in the mid-1970s together with his then-wife Rosalia Mera. Zara now has over 10,000 stores across the world. Ortega has a fortune worth a whopping $64 billion.

LVMH’s Bernard Arnault

The 70-year-old owns the world’s largest luxury-goods company

Clinching the top spot is another French billionaire, Bernard Arnault. Although he started his career in a whole other profession (engineering), he eventually found himself in the textile business after acquiring the financial firm Financiere Agache-Willot.

He then set his eyes on getting other subsidiaries including the French luxury goods brand Dior. Today his holdings have further expanded to include the brands Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Sephora and most recently, Tiffany & Co. Not surprisingly, these wise business moves resulted in his fortune to climb up fast. He currently has a net worth of $100 billion. He had about $37 billion just two years ago.