NO ONE with a fortune under £85 million made it into The Sunday Times Rich List top 1,000 this year - and the fashion industry is responsible for a healthy slice of that growth.
The industry is buoying the money-makers in Europe, with 10 of the 25 richest people having made their earnings in the fashion, beauty or luxury-goods industries, while the richest person on the continent is Amancio Ortega, the Spanish founder and owner of Zara's parent group, Inditex.
The guide also notes that the Beckhams' combined fortune has risen by £10 million to £210 million this year, thanks in no small part to the continued growth of Victoria's label, but the couple are still some way behind fashion's top earners. The Weston family, which controls Selfridges as well as Primark, lead the list with £7.3 billion; Arcadia owner Philip Green is third in the industry, with a fortune of £3.88 billion; while the owners of Matalan (John Hargreaves and family - who also own shares in Julien Macdonald and Nicole Farhi), New Look (Tom Singh and family), Monsoon (Peter Simon and family), Mulberry (Christina Ong and family), and River Island (Bernard Lewis and family) also make the fashion list.
François-Henri Pinault and wife Salma Hayek, who reportedly moved to London this year, were fifth on the fashion millionaires list, with a wealth of £2.38 billion.
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