Meet Fashion Nova CEO Richard Saghian – The 40-year-old billionaire built his empire solely on Instagram. His company has been accused of underpaying factory workers and he just got the biggest mansion in Los Angeles for $140 million.
Fashion mogul Richard Saghian recently made headlines after buying a mega mansion called The One in upscale Bel-Air at auction for US$141 million.
The CEO of private retailer Fashion Nova is a household name for fashion lovers everywhere. Her brand is known as a fast fashion company that capitalizes on social media buzz and has achieved huge success through its work with influencers as well as its speed in delivering the latest trending pieces to consumers.
According to Forbes calculations, Saghian’s wealth is valued at a net worth of US$1.4 billion which “arises from his 100% ownership of the business”.
So what else do we know about the fashion entrepreneur?
He learned fashion with his father
Iranian-American Saghian learned about fashion at an early age from his father, who owned women’s retail stores, according to Women’s Wear Daily. He founded Fashion Nova in 2006, which began as a chain of stores selling low-cost clubwear and other fashionable clothing in Los Angeles malls. Saghian then launched his own e-commerce site in 2013 and an Instagram account; he is often dubbed as one of the first fashion entrepreneurs to understand the power of buying on social media.
LA’s most over-the-top mansion has a buyer: Fashion Nova owner Richard Saghian https://t.co/OlswdhUKJ2 pic.twitter.com/96qyfxylsH
—Wayne Winterstein (@themightyap) March 7, 2022
The other key success factor for Fashion Nova is that it caters to different body types and is inclusive and diverse. They launched their Fashion Nova Curve line for plus size customers in 2016, menswear in 2018, and a beauty line in 2020 called Maven Beauty.
According to The Business of Fashion, Fashion Nova works with around 1,000 different manufacturers and releases 600 to 900 new styles per week. According to its website, Fashion Nova is “the world’s leading fast-to-market apparel and lifestyle brand.”
He built his empire through Instagram and is now worth US$1 billion
Saghian, 40, understood the power of Instagram early on. Prior to the launch of Fashion Nova’s e-commerce arm, Saghian macro-influenced his own 60,000 followers early on and turned them into loyal followers for his then-emerging brand. Many users still regularly tag the page using the branded hashtag #NovaBabes. This has generated high levels of brand engagement and trust among the younger generation.
According to The Business of Fashion, the fashion company’s signature bodycon has “set Instagram’s aesthetic in stone, characterized by affordable, on-trend clothing endorsed by influencers and celebrities.”
Fashion Nova’s collaborations with popular celebrities like Cardi B, Kylie Jenner, Khloe Kardashian, Megan Thee Stallion and Amber Rose – among its at least 2,000 influencers – have also given the brand a huge boost in the image of social media mark. Rapper and singer Cardi B collaborated with Fashion Nova for a collection in 2019 that reportedly grossed US$1 million in one day.
In 2018, Fashion Nova enjoyed higher visibility than H&M and Zara and beat fashion houses like Louis Vuitton, Versace and Gucci as the most searched fashion brand on Google. According to Women’s Wear Daily, a single Jenner post can earn Saighan’s brand $50,000 in revenue.
Forbes recently reported that Saghian is worth around $1.4 billion, considering Fashion Nova makes over $1 billion in annual sales.
He has been the subject of criticism
However, its success has not been without some controversy. In 2016, the fashion behemoth was investigated by the US Department of Labor as they found that some of its suppliers were underpaying its workers at its Los Angeles factories. However, Fashion Nova denied the allegations and said the workers were not directly employed by the company.
In 2018, the company was called in to produce knockoff celebrity styles from Jenner and Kardashian, as well as other independent labels.
Despite this, in 2020, Saghian pledged to give US$1 million in donations to a number of NGOs like Black Lives Matter, Know Your Rights Camp, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
The One Mega Mansion
Saighan made headlines when he bought a $141 million Bel-Air mansion called The One at an auction recently – a remarkable deal, considering the estate was originally listed at $295 million. dollars and was once valued at $500 million. The sale was also marked as the highest price ever for a residence at auction, reports Concierge Auctions.
The mega mansion took nearly 10 years to build and is considered the largest house in Los Angeles at 105,000 square feet, built by Nile Niami, who promoted it as “the largest and most expensive modern home of America”.
Nestled atop a hill, the estate has 21 bedrooms and 42 bathrooms and features a sky deck with multiple pools, a game room, private theater, bowling alley, salon, spa and nightclub. Other OTT amenities include a putting green and a 10,000 bottle wine cellar.
The One has already been rented for filming and would likely serve as a backdrop for Fashion Nova photo shoots.
“The One Bel-Air is a once-in-a-lifetime property that can never be replicated. There is nothing else like it. As a lifelong Angeleno and avid real estate collector, I recognized this as a rare opportunity that also allows me to own a unique property destined to be part of Los Angeles history,” Saighan said recently. at the Los Angeles Times.
His other million dollar LA properties
The king of fast fashion has also gotten his hands on several other multimillion-dollar properties in Los Angeles. In 2018, he bought the late DJ Avicii’s Hollywood Hills home for a whopping $17.5 million. It made headlines when an attempted armed robbery took place on the estate last year, where three men wearing ski masks allegedly had a gunfight with Saghian’s bodyguards.
In 2021, Saghian bought another property: a beach house in Malibu for $14.7 million, which he purchased from Netflix boss Ted Sarandos.
The property was previously owned by actor David Spade and spans approximately 3,800 square feet with loggias for outdoor dining, high-ceilinged common rooms, and a kitchen with high-end Viking appliances.
To note: This story originally appeared on SCMP and has been reposted on this website.