Call me naive, but I'd like to think most people who go into the fashion game do it because they have a passion for it and not because they want to make lots of money.
Some do get rich, though, either because their talent for designing clothes is prodigious or (more likely) because they're good at selling clothes someone else has designed or (even more likely) because they mix with the right sort of venture capitalists at the right sort of dinner parties.
A list of the UK's wealthiest fashion figures has just been published. But as well as perusing the Who, I've been trying to figure out the How and the Why. So, for any readers who are thinking "Sod it, had enough of IT, think I'll start a multi-million-pound fashion empire", here's my Dos And Don'ts Guide To Cracking The Fashion Racket, based on what I've learned.
Do ... leave school before you're old enough to drink legally: Philip (now Sir Philip) Green waved goodbye to double maths when he was 15 and started importing jeans from the Far East. From there it was a hop, skip and a jump to running the Arcadia Group and owning brands like Top Shop and BHS. Now worth £3.88 billion, he's one of Britain's wealthiest fashionistas. Meanwhile Chrissie Rucker, founder of White Company, left school at 16.
Don't ... play squash: Good advice for everyone, really, but particularly for those who want to emulate Sports Direct tsar Mike Ashley. His original career plan was to be a professional squash player but when injury put paid to that he started selling hoodies and sweatpants instead. He's now worth £3.75bn, though on the downside he has to watch every Newcastle United home game: he owns the club.
Do ... become a supermodel: They don't all hang out with Richard Branson (though I imagine we'd be surprised at the do-to-don't ratio), but those who make it to the upper echelons of supermodel-dom can expect a serious payout. Kate Moss's worth is estimated at £55m, and Naomi Campbell and Erin O'Connor aren't doing too badly either on £20m and £12m respectively.
Don't ... be scared of catalogues, sex toys or Glasgow: Despite having David Cameron climb into his shorts, mail order king Johnnie Boden's personal worth has gone up to £245m on the back of increased sales - and he still only has one shop. Meanwhile, father-and-daughter team David and Jacqueline Gold are just behind Boden on £240m, with much of their wealth coming from the Ann Summers chain, and Londoner Ray Kelvin will be glad he opened his first Ted Baker store in Glasgow in 1988. He's now worth £375m.
Do ... have a wealthy dad: Tamara Mellon, as accessories editor for Vogue magazine, could see the potential of shoe designer Jimmy Choo but knew he needed funds to turn his products into the global brand they are today. A call to her father, a co-founder of the Vidal Sassoon hairdressing empire, led to a loan of £150,000.
Don't ... get on your bike: Former Tory cabinet minister Norman Tebbit famously suggested Britons do this to get ahead. But Paul Smith had already done it and fallen off, an accident which cut short his dreams of a Tour de France win. If he hadn't mounted the thing in the first place and opened his first shop a few years earlier than he did, his empire might be worth even more than the £290m it is today.
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