Though now aged in his 80s, it's a fair bet he'll remain so, even with the appointment of the new executive team. But the new chief executive and chairwoman are unlikely to be steering the Inditex ship without the owner of zara brand help of founder Amancio. Just this week, authorities in the French city of Bordeaux rejected plans by a Zara store to double its floor space, over allegations the fashion label may have profited from the forced labour of Uighurs in China. Ms Ortega has been credited with strengthening the retailer's brand image, having led several campaigns, including the launch of Zara's premium collections such as Zara SRPLS and Charlotte Gainsbourg by Zara.

1. He bypassed the then-richest person, Bill Gates, when his net worth peaked to $80 billion as Zara's parent company Inditex's stock peaked.
2. They stand in a room full of new technology at a large industrial complex in Arteixo, a small town in northern Spain.
3. The commercial team will then compile the order, adding in new products and balancing out demand with other stores, before sending it to Inditex’s manufacturing hub.
4. Until 1999, no photograph of Ortega had ever been published—and he has granted very few interviews to journalists over his entire career.
5. Ortega reportedly frequents the same coffee shop every day and eats lunch in his company's cafeteria.

At the vast Arteixo base, home to 6,000 staff from 30 countries, a tunnel network carries a carousel that moves clothing from the on-site factories – which themselves account for 5pc of Zara’s products – to the vast distribution centre. Inside the distribution centre, clothes move along the carousel until they reach their allocated box. This box, earmarked for an individual store, will be packed with different products and reach its destination within 36 to 48 hours.

That’s city-specific customisation for you.Hits aren’t simply endlessly reproduced, they are modified, ostensibly so that customers won’t walk into a room of identically dressed women, but also to encourage them to buy several versions. Some are merely “school of” – such as this year’s Barbie doll t-shirts which miraculously chimed with the Barbie theme of Jeremy Scott’s Barbie doll collection for Moschino this spring, even featuring a similar typeface. Others, as in the case of a Céline-esque, block-coloured shoulder-bag bag from a few seasons ago, or the Valentino, block heeled patent tango shoe, the tributes disappear from store mysteriously quickly. Zara produces relatively small runs of some of its best products.

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There might be 40,000 of a successful style – but spread across 88 countries, that counts as restraint – which only makes savvy consumers less likely to dither when they see something good. Bloomberg reported in 2012 that he eschewed an office to sit among the designers and fabric experts at Zara's headquarters, while another report said he typically ate lunch with his employees in the company cafeteria every day. Ortega and Perez share two children, including a daughter, Marta, who began in the family business nearly 16 years ago, according to the Financial Times. She married top Spanish equestrian Sergio Álvarez Moya in February 2012, but the couple separated in 2015.

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However, a bar further down the street had adopted the same name, so Ortega and Mera were forced to adapt. Given that the Zorba name was already on the store, they tried to think of a name that would still use most of the letters. They settled on Zara, a brand now present in every corner of the globe.

Manufacturing and distribution

Information filters up the food chain, as far as the 350 strong design team in Arteixo, Spain. When a batch of white jackets stubbornly refused to fly out of Manhattan branch of Zara a few years ago, sales staff talked to shoppers and discovered Manhattanites prefer cream. The run was withdrawn, re-issued in cream and sold out in that 42nd street branch.

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By the early 1960s, Ortega had already developed the core operating principles for the business model that would later be called fast fashion. They stand in a room full of new technology at a large industrial complex in Arteixo, a small town in northern Spain. From the outside, the industrial estate does not appear that different to the standard collection of offices, warehouse and factories typical in the UK. However, it is home to the biggest fashion retailer in the world, a company that has reset the boundaries for what shoppers expect from a high street clothing store.