UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
The Richest People In Fashion: Role Models or Role Players?
Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani are names we hear in the classroom and industry that are global brands and emblems of success in our minds. The CEOs of a few such companies, as we see below, are worth multiple billions of US dollars. Sometimes it may seem puzzling that such figures receive exponentially more money than doctors who save lives every day.
The list below is of the astounding net worth of some of the richest business leaders in fashion:
Bernard Arnault, LVMH - $27.5 billion
Ronald Perelman, Revlon - $11 billion
Philip Knight, Nike - $10.2 billion
Giorgio Armani - $5.3 billion
Ralph Lauren, Polo - $4.6 billion
Leonard Lauder, Estée Lauder - $4 billion
William Fung, Li & Fung - $3.5 billion
If it’s your desire and dream to one day possess what these rich persons possess, remember that the group includes those who earned their fortunes themselves and those who inherited great wealth as children. Moreover, everyone does not always remember that licensing, investments, non-fashion businesses, and other sources of wealth are in every case the greatest part of total net worth. These fortunes were not created primarily from selling clothing, even though luxury brands seek to make it seem as if wearing expensive clothes and looking and being rich are all one and the same thing.
There are entertainers, of course, who came from modest backgrounds and transformed themselves into rich entrepreneurs. Jennifer Lopez is a prime example, with her financiallly successful fashion, accessories and fragrance companies. Lopez is on the Forbes list of the world’s richest women in the entertainment industry, proof that fashion brands can be an important part of getting there if a brand is managed effectively.
--Francesca Inguaggiatto
Further reading:
Topics: fashion industry, Fashion Culture