Meet Australia’s ‘Fashion Billionaires’

Walk into almost any shopping centre or outdoor mall in Australia, and you’ll likely find a Cotton On store. These days you even come across the brand in markets as far afield as the US, Brazil and South Africa. Parent company Cotton On Group boasts over 1500 outlets in 22 countries, a sign of how far it has come since founder Nigel Austin famously started out selling acid-wash denim from the boot of his car in the late 1980s.

Austin went on to open his first Cotton On store in 1991 in the small city of Geelong behind his grandfather’s butcher shop. The teenage favourite now sits alongside seven other brands in the group including budget label Supré and Factorie, all of which contribute to Austin’s 2.4 billion Australian dollar (US $1.5 billion) fortune.

“[Cotton On] is highly recognised and it consistently delivers on its value proposition. There are other brands selling $20 T-shirts but, in the background, [company] culture is [one] reason for the brand’s success,” says David Bush, founder of the eponymous consulting firm. “I’m a real believer that culture drives revenue and profit.”

Fashion is a family affair for Cotton On owner Austin. His father Garry launched the Austin Group, which owns the Gazman, Cable and Perri Cutten brands. Meanwhile, his ex-wife Tania Austin, who helped to build up Cotton On, bought the struggling Decjuba fashion brand when it had just five stores; today it counts over 140 stores across Australia and New Zealand and has helped her grow her own fortune.

If Austin’s approach has reaped him rewards, his is still a somewhat unusual story of a local fashion entrepreneur hitting such financial heights. But that’s not to say the number of Australian billionaires isn’t rising rapidly.

“If we look across the list, the wealth still is very much dominated by a few big sectors, being mining, property and technology,” Yolanda Redrup, editor of the Australian Financial Review Rich List, tells BoF. Over the past year, the fortunes of the wealthiest 200 people on the list grew 11 percent.

In Australian-dollar terms, the number of billionaires is now bang on 150; the number of qualifiers in US dollar terms sits just over 100. Across industries, “there’s a mix of fortunes…between those who have come from family money versus those who…are self-made,” she adds.

Redrup notes that retailers are one of the segments “growing their share of the pie” of the country’s personal wealth. By way of example, the recently released AFR Young Rich List included several fashion retailers classed as centi-millionaires in Australian-dollar terms.

Among them are Dean Mintz of grey market luxury drop-ship retailer Cettire (519 million), Simon and Tah-nee Beard, founders of streetwear retailer Culture Kings (408 million) and Georgia and Daniel Contos of fast fashion brand White Fox (200 million). In the 100 million Australian dollars-plus bracket are Lucy Henry-Hicks of Dissh, Natasha Oakley of Monday Swimwear, Jane Lu of Showpo and Daniel Fogarty of couch-favourite hoodie blankets Oodie.

“So, we could see more billionaires come out of that sector as the next decade progresses,” says Redrup.

But besides Cotton On’s Austin there are other Australians who have already made their billion-dollar fortunes directly from the rag trade. If their examples offer any advice to would-be billionaires, it appears to be that budget brands are best.

Rag Trade Billionaires

Leading these out is retailer Solomon Lew, whose Premier Investments includes mall favourites Just Jeans, Portmans, Dotti and Jacqui E. Known as a shrewd operator, Lew recently sold five of his brands (while retaining stationery brand Smiggle and pyjama behemoth Peter Alexander) to department store Myer in a deal worth 950 million Australian dollars (US $624 million) — and a 26.8 per cent shareholding in Myer.

It would be hard to find a family more steeped in Australian fashion history than that of Naomi Milgrom. Her grandparents Fay and Sam Gandel had a lingerie store in Melbourne in the late 1930s, which became womenswear retailer Sussan. Their daughter Eve would later marry hosiery supplier Marc Besen, Milgrom’s parents. Besen and brother-in-law John Gandel would oversee the expansion of the brand, along with a shopping centre interest, from the late 1950s.

Milgrom joined the family business in 1988, and under her leadership acquired high-street brands Sportsgirl (from receivers) and Suzanne Grae. Milgrom was made managing director in 1998 and bought out her father and siblings in 2003. Today she oversees 500 stores across Australia under the umbrella of ARJ Group and has a reported wealth of 1.59 billion Australian dollars ($1 billion).

Although Brett Blundy started out buying a single record store in 1980, which has since spun out into the Sanity Entertainment Group, he controlled a number of fashion brands in the BBRC group over the years, adding to his 3.6 billion Australian-dollar (US$2.3 billion) fortune. His early foray was into lingerie, launching the mainstream Bras N Things in 1987, which was sold to Hanes in 2018 for 500 million Australian dollars. He later invested in the more controversial lingerie label Honey Birdette, which was sold to Playboy’s parent company PLBY Group in 2021 for US $333 million.

Affordable jewellery has been a significant category for Blundy, first with his purchase of budget brand Diva in 2005, followed by the launch of the Lovisa brand in 2010, which today has over 900 stores in 45 countries and of which he now controls 40 percent. In 2023 he bought budget chain Best&Less, and currently has investments in popular womenswear label Dissh, and plus-size womenswear brand City Chic.

“Brett’s on the zeitgeist, always ahead of the curve,” says Bush. “He’s very smart at putting the right people in the right jobs and he’s also got a real hunger—and hunger drives business.”

Two other rich listers who have capitalised on Australia’s love of affordable products are Jack Gance and Mario Verocchi. Back in the 1970s, when Australia was best known globally for its sun-and-sand lifestyle, the pair launched a company with two wildly successful brands — Le Specs sunglasses and Le Tan suntan creams — which they sold in 1991. In 1995 the duo opened five Chemist Warehouse pharmacies, offering aggressively discounted perfumes and beauty products among other pharmacy products in a no-frills, warehouse-style environment. Today, there are more than 600 such outlets. Gance (with his brother Sam) and Verocchio now have respective fortunes of 3.92 and 3.8 billion Australian dollars (around US $2.5 billion each).

While not quite in the heady billionaire’s club, the founders of two other businesses at the premium end of the fashion and beauty sector could join in the coming years.

Jo Horgan is the founder of beauty behemoth Mecca who, along with husband Peter Wetenhall, now sits at 177th on the AFR list. It is Mecca’s heady combination of world-leading beauty brands, innovative marketing, and engaging customer service and retail environments that has managed to keep Sephora at bay in the Australian market.

Meanwhile, the Zimmermann sisters, Nicky and Simone, entered the list this year three slots down from Horgan and Wetenhall, with a combined fortune of 792 million Australian dollars (US $520 million). Since it first took investment in 2016, the Zimmermann brand has struck a global expansion path that saw it open stores across Europe, the US and Middle East.

Redrup says that compared to other fashion-first members of the AFR Rich List, the Zimmermanns are “in a category of their own” in that their offering hits a significantly higher price point. “They’re more of a luxury retailer and they’ve done a really good job of cracking international markets as well,” she said. “And they’ve done a really great job of just creating really well designed, beautiful products that [are feminine and stand out which] women want to wear.”

Mall Moguls and Textile Tycoons

“We’ve got plenty of property entrepreneurs [on the AFR Rich List including] plenty from the commercial [side of the sector],” says Redrup. “They are a little bit immune to some of the regular fluctuations in the property market in that they’re very good yield-based investments.”

“A lot of it is still dominated by these really big players that have been around for a long time,” she adds. Two such moguls are Sir Frank Lowy and John Gandel.

For Lowy, a first-generation immigrant to Australia who started out opening a deli with a friend in the 1950s, it was shopping malls that would build his 9.92 billion Australian-dollar (US $6.5 billion) fortune. His first Westfield mall was launched in Sydney in 1959, and they soon spread across Australia and New Zealand, before expanding internationally into the US in the 1970s (including New York’s iconic Westfield World Trade Center, opened in 2016) and the UK with its Westfield London property in 2008.

Westfield malls are anchored with fashion retailers relevant to the area; for example, the Sydney flagship mall offers an abundance of luxury brands including Prada, Gucci, Chanel and Christian Louboutin.

Lowy split the company into two in 2014; the Australian–New Zealand arm became Scentre Group, with Westfield representing the global entity. Three years later, Westfield was bought by French property group Unibail-Rodamco in a deal worth 33 billion Australian dollars.

For Paul Zahra, CEO of the Australian Retailers Association, Lowy remains “a giant of the retail sector and a true visionary for the customer experience.”

“Westfield changed the face of modern shopping in Australia when it was founded and it remains an icon of the retail industry with a significant global footprint,” Zahra says. “Sir Frank’s leadership style and vision helped shape Australian retail, emphasising the importance of community spaces within retail environments.”

Not quite 3 billion Australian dollars behind Lowy is Gandel, whose initial wealth came from the aforementioned family business, the Sussan clothing chain. Selling out of this, he concentrated on commercial real estate, first buying two malls from department store Myer in the 1980s. One of these was Chadstone shopping centre, southeast of Melbourne, which is Australia’s largest shopping centre with over 500 stores, including a slew of luxury and Australian fashion retailers.

Gandel now owns 50 per cent of Chadstone; he is also the largest shareholder in Vicinity, which owns the other half of Chadstone along with another eight shopping centres around Australia including Sydney’s Chatswood Chase and the heritage Queen Victoria Building.

Rounding out the intersection of commercial real estate and fashion, property developer Bob Ell also has three shopping malls in Queensland and one in Canberra that contribute to his 2.68 billion Australian-dollar (US$ 1.7 billion) fortune.

Interestingly, Australia’s second-richest man Harry Triguboff (worth 26.49 billion Australian dollars or US $17.2 billion) started out in textiles before making his fortune in residential development. His father traded in silk, wool and leather in China, where Harry was born, and Harry later worked in textile-related businesses in South Africa and Israel before returning to Australia, where he earned the nickname “High-rise Harry” after founding the Meriton property empire.

Siblings Justin and Bettina Hemmes — who hold a fortune worth 1.46 billion Australian dollars (US $950 million) — are synonymous with Sydney’s hospitality scene, leading the Merivale Group of over 90 venues across the city and, now, Melbourne. But just as they embody the hospitality scene of today, so their parents, John and Merivale Hemmes, were the pin-ups of the Australian fashion scene in the 1960s and ‘70s through their youth-focused House of Merivale stores, which also planted the seeds of that property portfolio.

Investing in Australian Heritage Brands

For some of Australia’s wealthiest investors, the lure of keeping the country’s best-known heritage brands alive has proven powerful — even if fashion doesn’t come immediately to mind as a sector that will offer high yields.

Leading the trend was Will Vicars, chief investment officer of hedge fund Caledonia Investments. At the end of 2017, accessories brand Oroton — known in the 1950s and ‘60s for its metallic mesh items — went into administration. Vicars was one of the brand’s main shareholders at the time, and by mid-2018, he had bought the brand outright for a reported 25 million Australian dollars.

Perhaps this purchase planted a seed for other billionaires. Mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest and his estranged wife Nicola Forrest, who split last year but are said to have no plans to divorce, have also split their 33.29 billion Australian-dollar (US $21.8 billion) fortune. Through their Tattarang personal investment vehicle, the pair first purchased beloved boot brand RM Williams in 2020 for a reported 190 million Australian dollars.

In addition to RM Williams, Tattarang purchased heritage outdoor hat brand Akubra —another symbol of outback Australia — in 2023, following five generations of family ownership. Tattarang has also invested in contemporary womenswear label Camilla by designer Camilla Franks.

Following in the Forrests’ footsteps, fellow Western Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart (the country’s wealthiest person at 40.61 billion Australian dollars, or US $26.4 billion) purchased two heritage outdoor brands in late 2023: Rossi boots and outerwear brand Driza-Bone, the latter the makers of the iconic oilskin coats. Both purchases, for undisclosed amounts, were made via the S Kidman & Co. pastoral company, which is majority owned by Rinehart in a joint venture with Shanghai Cred.

While these are the first fashion purchases by Rinehart, it’s not for want of trying; she reportedly attempted — twice — to invest in Australian-British couture house Ralph & Russo when it went into administration in 2021.

Redrup suggests that the acquisition of such heritage brands is about more than just profit potential. “Part of it to me feels like they’re probably brands that [the billionaire investors] have fallen in love with,” she says. “I don’t think I could say that retail fashion makes up a lion’s share of any of their net worth positions, but clearly they are names that they took a real personal interest in. It’s an interesting little quirk of their portfolios.”

Indeed, in most cases it is too early to know what, if any, return on investment these deals will reap but the heritage brand category remains a popular bet.

Wealth from Wool, Leather and Gems

Australia is a country rich with not only natural mineral resources, but also agricultural products that directly benefit the fashion industry. It is globally recognised for its superfine merino wool production, along with cotton. While these textile fibres are important exports for the economy, they are not industries that tend to breed billionaires.

Instead, leather features in wealth profiles of several billionaires, albeit in a roundabout way. It is fair to say that a fraction of income for some may come from a beef byproduct: the raw hides which are sold off for leather production.

Rinehart and the Forrests both hold significant cattle interests in Australia, along with media magnate Kerry Stokes, fast food king Jack Cowin, Chinese-Australian property developer Hui Wing Mau (also known as Xu Rongmao), hedge fund manager Michael Hintze (who also has investments in wool and cotton), and electricals retailer Gerry Harvey. Brett Blundy has been selling off some of his beef investments in the past few years.

There are more glamorous materials that fashion players source from Australia, such as precious metals and gems. The country previously produced the most renowned pink diamonds at the Argyle mine in Western Australia, which closed production in 2020. It is also the equal second-largest producer, with Russia, of gold in the world. Just this year, Andrew Forrest invested in a gold mine in Western Australia.

A lot of wealth has also been generated from Australian South Sea pearls over the years. One family name is synonymous with the gem’s farming and jewellery: Paspaley. Today, Nicholas Paspaley Jr leads the Paspaley Group, which owns the namesake jewellery brand and has interests across numerous industries including aviation, retail and pastoral. But all of this was built on the pearling operation started by his father, Nicholas Paspaley Sr.

“[The Paspaleys’] fortune has evolved quite a bit over time and now the pearl business is a much smaller chunk of their actual fortune,” says Redrup. “But it is where that family started and it’s certainly a great legacy story.”

At the other end of the spectrum are thoroughly modern billionaires who have amassed fortunes from the tech sector. Notable among these are Afterpay founders Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen, each worth 1.4 billion Australian dollars (US $905 million).

From the success of its first partnership with fast fashion brand Princess Polly, the BNPL (buy now, pay later) platform was able to raise funding. The company continued to grow revenue from the transaction commission it charges fashion and other retail merchants, helping it to expand to the US and UK where it acquired Clearpay. In 2021, Afterpay became the naming sponsor of Australian Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week and London Fashion Week, for three years. The same year, it was bought by Square in a deal reportedly worth US $29 billion.

It’s anyone’s guess what new ideas and prospects will spark the next generation of wealth in Australia. But as the country continues to build its reputation as an innovation hub, and its designers and retailers gain more international traction, it seems certain that more fashion entrepreneurs will join the billionaire’s club in the years to come.