Rosalía Mera (1944-2013) was a Spanish businesswoman and entrepreneur who navigated her way from working as a child seamstress to becoming the world’s richest self-made woman and the head of a global fashion empire.
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Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today’s episode is about a Spanish businesswoman and entrepreneur who navigated her way from working as a child seamstress to becoming the world’s richest self-made woman and the head of a global fashion empire. Her company, Zara, revolutionized the way new trends traveled from runway to clothing rack. Let’s talk about Rosalia Mera.
Rosalia was born on January 28, 1944, in the port city of La Coruña in Galicia, Spain, an area famous for its textile industry. Her mother worked at a butcher shop and her father worked for a utility company Rosalia grew up in a working class neighborhood and found herself drawn at a young age to the sewing trade .
At just 11 years old, she dropped out of school to go to work as a seamstress. There, she met a messenger boy who worked for a shirtmakers shop across the street. His name was Amancio Ortega. Three years later, he and Rosalia were married.
The newlyweds set up a small seamstress shop in their living room where they produced Rosalia’s designs for bathrobes and lingerie. The designs were apparently a bit scandalous for the time, but the pieces were an immediate success. Some have attributed this to a newfound sense of freedom and sea change in the last years of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco’s reign. Soon, Rosalia and Amancio expanded their business to employ hundreds of home seamstresses in the region.
In 1975, the family business was officially incorporated as “Zara.” Rosalia had originally wanted to call it “Zorba” after watching the 1964 movie “Zorba the Greek,” but soon learned that a bar in the neighborhood had claimed the name. Since Rosalia and Amancio had already made the molds for “Zorba,” they had to come up with another name that utilized the same letters. Thus, Zara was born!
The first Zara store debuted in 1975 in La Coruna. That year also marked the death of Franco, and the beginning of a more liberal, colorful era in the country as it entered a new democratic phase.The Spanish public, mostly overjoyed at the political and social changes around them, wanted clothing that reflected their new sense of freedom. Zara was up to the task.
Soon, Zara stores were opening in all of the major Spanish cities, then in Portugal, and finally worldwide. Today, there are more than 1,700 Zara stores in 86 countries around the globe.
Rosalia set Zara apart from other manufacturers early on by streamlining its production methods using what is now known as vertical integration. The company controlled every aspect of its designs and apparel, from the time they were drawn up to the moment they were placed in shopping bags. What required months of work at other leading stores took Zara just two weeks. As a result, Zara got new styles from leading fashion houses around the world out to everyday consumers while they were still fresh. Once the clothing hit Zara stores, the company used a groundbreaking process for receiving daily feedback from each store to quickly modify designs and products for maximum consumer appeal.
Unsurprisingly, Zara’s popularity grew quickly. In 1985, just 10 years after opening their first store, Rosalia and Amancio co-founded the Industria de Diseño Textil, better known as Inditex. It incorporated eight name brands, including Zara, and other well-known manufacturers like Pull & Bear and Bershka, under one umbrella. Daniel Piette, the fashion director for Louis Vuitton S.A., called Inditex “possibly the most innovative and devastating retailer in the world.”
Soon after Inditex was established, Rosalia and Amancio separated. This also spelled the end of Rosalia’s direct work with Zara.
Even so in 2001, Rosalia made more than $600 million from Inditex’s first public stock offering.
She remained on the company’s board until 2004, but devoted the vast majority of her time to philanthropy and political activism. Most of her work focused on initiatives to assist disabled individuals and on developing a more robust women’s rights movement in Spain. She was particularly vocal about the importance of reproductive rights and a woman’s right to choose, which was notable in a historically conservative, majority-Catholic country like Spain.
In 2013, Forbes named Rosalia the richest woman in Spain and the 66th richest woman in the world with a net worth of more than $6 billion dollars.
Rosalia died that same year, after suffering a stroke. She was laid to rest in her home city of La Coruña. She was 69 years old.
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Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.