ARMANI NAMED WORLD’S RICHEST FASHION DESIGNER
▶ In our fortnightly celebrity round-up, Brad Pitt buys a new home and Bollywood star Katrina Kaif invests in Indian handbag brand Behno,
At 88 years of age and with a net worth of $11.5 billion, Italian couturier Giorgio Armani is the world’s richest fashion designer, according to figures from the Forbes 2023 World Billionaires List.
Other fashion designers on the list include Ralph Lauren, who has a personal fortune of $7.2 billion, and Miuccia Prada with $5.4 billion.
Completing the top five are Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who each have a fortune of $2.1 billion.
Kim Kardashian is also on the list, with a net worth of $1.2 billion, which comes principally from her shapewear and cosmetics lines, as well as a reality television franchise.
Armani, one of the richest men in Italy, has made his fortune as the king of the power suit.
Since launching his first ready-to-wear line in 1975 with friend and business partner Sergio Galeotti, Armani has expanded into the couture, diffusion and jeans segments, as well as introducing perfumes and accessories bearing his name.
“I was the first to soften the image of men, and harden the image of women,” Armani once said.
He became an international name after the 1980 film American Gigolo, where actor Richard Gere’s character wore the label almost exclusively.
Much of Armani’s success has come from dressing Hollywood A-listers for the annual Academy Awards.
He is the sole owner of his brands, a rarity in the modern fashion world.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, he has refused to sell his company over the years.
The net revenue of the privately held company rose to €2.02 billion ($2.23 billion) in 2021, up 26.3 per cent frothe previous year, according to Reuters figures.
The figures for 2022 have not yet been released.
Meanwhile, Lauren, 83, is the executive chairman and chief creative officer of Ralph Lauren.
He has seen his fortune fluctuate over the years, from $7 billion in 2015 to $5.5 billion the following year, before rising, falling and then rising again to his current net worth of $7.2 billion, according to Forbes figures.
Lauren controls 85 per cent of the voting rights at his fashion empire.
Prada, 73, is the driving force – now co-creative director with Belgian designer Raf Simons – behind the label founded by her Milanese grandfather Mario in 1913.
Having inherited the business with her siblings Alberto and Marina, she ran the company with her husband, billionaire Patrizio Bertelli, until January.
The company expects revenue to exceed €4.5 billion this year, Mr Bertelli told Reuters last month.
Dolce, 64, and Gabbana, 60, founded their company in Milan in 1985.
Recognised for their overthe-top style and animal print designs, their big break came in the early 1990s when pop star Madonna chose them to create the costumes for her Girlie tour.
Brad Pitt
The Hollywood A-list actor recently bought a three-bedroom, $5.5 million home from oil heiress Aileen Getty a few days after she bought his 4,000-square-metre five-building compound in nearby Hollywood Hills for $33 million, according to the property website Dirt.
Pitt appears to have made the sale before the Los Angeles mansion tax went into effect this month.
The Academy Award-winning actor, 59, has a net worth of $400 million, according to wealth tracker Celebrity Net Worth. That is $100 million more than his estimated 2021 net worth.
The difference appears to have at least partly come from the reported sale of a 60 per cent stake in his production company Plan B Entertainment to the French media conglomerate Mediawan.
Pitt founded the company, which has produced Academy Award-winning movies such as The Departed and 12 Years a Slave, with former wife Jennifer Aniston in 2001.
The sale took place in December last year. CNBC said the transaction was “in the hundreds of millions but below $500 million”.
A major portion of Pitt’s net worth derives from an acting career spanning more than three decades, beginning with a reported $6,000 for his bit part in Thelma & Louise.
By the time Mr & Mrs Smith was released in 2005, when he met former wife Angelina Jolie on set, he was earning $20 million as an outright acting fee for projects where he did not also have production credits, according to Celebrity Net Worth figures.
Pitt’s assets could soon be valued differently when his long-running divorce battle with Jolie is finally settled – although it has been reported that she has made no claim for spousal support.
The actress filed for divorce in 2016, citing irreconcilable differences.
Pitt extended his business interests with the launch last year of Le Domaine, a genderless luxury skincare line that he has said was partly inspired by former girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop wellness brand.
Katrina Kaif
The Bollywood star has signed on to endorse handbag label Behno. She is also an investor in the New York-based brand, Vogue India reported recently.
The Hong Kong-born British actress said she was drawn to it by creative director and founder Shivam Punjya’s holistic and ethical approach.
“The brand’s commitment to working with Indian artisans in meaningful ways truly defines luxury, where sustainable fashion meets great design, something I, too, look for in a fashion brand,” she told Vogue India.
Punjya says he founded Behno after the Rana Plaza building’s collapse in 2013, where at least 1,132 people died in five garment factories.
Kaif, 39, is one of India’s richest film stars.
A former model, she has banked her way to a net worth of $30 million over a 20-year film career, Celebrity Net Worth estimates. The Sooryavanshi star’s acting fee ranges between $1.2 million and $1.4 million per project, according to the India’s DNA newspaper.
Kaif, who has more than 92 million followers on social media, has endorsed a number of brands over the past two decades, including Xiaomi India, Kalyan Jewelers, Titan Watches, Reebok, Veet, Yardley and Berger Paints.
She also invested in India’s direct-to-consumer company Nykaa in 2018.
She entered a joint venture with the beauty start-up to set up Nykaa-KK Beauty and launch the cosmetic brand Kay Beauty.
By 2021, her investment of 20 million Indian rupees ($245,125) had increased tenfold after the company’s initial public offering.
Rihanna
The singer and cosmetics billionaire was among the big-ticket buyers of property in Los Angeles before the mansion tax took effect.
At the end of last month, the Fenty Beauty founder purchased a $21 million penthouse in The Century, a luxury tower block that houses her primary residence, Dirt reported.
The Barbadian-born singer bought the home from tech billionaire Nick Molnar.
A previous owner was Friends actor Matthew Perry.
Rihanna has upgraded from a 3,500-square-foot apartment to a 9,000-square-foot “mansion in the sky” that spans the building’s entire 40th floor.
The larger apartment is thought to be better suited to her growing family.
She has an 11-month-old son with rapper A$AP Rocky and is expecting another baby in the summer.
The 2010 building is home to actor Denzel Washington and theatre producer Candy Spelling, whose own duplex spans the building’s 41st and 42nd floors.
The Umbrella singer, 35, has a net worth of $1.4 billion, according to Forbes.
Although she is famous for her 20-year career in music, with her songs being streamed billions of times each year, she has become a billionaire thanks to her fashion and beauty brands.