Boxer, playboy– and prodigal son
BEFORE he founded Pretty Little Thing, Umar Kamani admits he was an amateur boxer and playboy who cared only about partying and chasing women. Now he calls this rather hedonistic lifestyle ‘work’ – and boy, does he work hard.
One day he’s ‘topping up his vitamin D’ in the infinity pool at the luxury Monastero Santa Rosa Hotel in Italy, where a sea view suite will set you back nearly £3,000 a night.
The next, he’s at the wheel of a Riva yacht cruising along the Amalfi coast before posing on the bonnet of his £264,000 Rolls-Royce Dawn in Beverly Hills.
Or maybe he’d prefer his £300,000 Lamborghini Aventador roadster or the coupe version with personalised number plate. For more rugged trips, he has two Hummers and a £92,000 customised Mercedes G-class.
You’ll find him lunching at Nobu in Malibu, California, in a pair of £450 Gucci slippers, a gold Rolex on one arm and girlfriend Amy Reddish on the other. He hangs out with rapper P Diddy at the Grammys and Kylie Jenner at the Coachella music festival in California. All events are, naturally, recorded on his smartphone, which has a £790 Louis Vuitton cover.
His five-year plan, he says, is ‘to make as much money as possible’ and escape his father’s shadow, admitting that half the reason Mahmud helped him start Pretty Little Thing was to ‘get me on the right track’.
‘I’m a rich man’s son and that’s not what I want to be,’ he says. ‘So yes, I have got something to prove. I want to be the rich man. I want to be the successful person.’
Pretty Little Thing is still very much the junior partner of the Boohoo empire, with sales of £11.2 million last year. But it is expanding fast. Last month, it was the fastestgrowing online fashion brand. It employs 300 staff and counts singers Miley Cyrus, Rita Ora and Nicki Minaj among its fans.
‘If you’re going to be in competition, I would rather keep it in the family,’ says Umar.