Is Zara heiress Marta Ortega Pérez the ‘most powerful woman in fashion’? From sales clerk to taking over the multibillion-dollar Inditex fashion empire from dad Amancio Ortega, Spain’s richest man

The year 2021 certainly ended on a high for Marta Ortega Pérez. The fashion powerhouse was appointed chair of fashion retail company Inditex, which owns Zara, in December last year and is set to begin the role in April. But who is the Zara heiress who will inherit her 85-year-old father Amancio Ortega’s massive fortune, and has she been secretly influencing your fashion style for years?

Her father is Spain’s richest man with a net worth of US$73 billion

Amancio Ortega stepped down from chairing the company in 2011 when Pablo Isla took over. But he still maintains a 60 per cent stake in Inditex making him one of the richest people on the planet (the richest when share prices spiked in 2015), and the wealthiest man in Spain.

Marta’s CV starts off just like yours

Pérez started her career as a sales assistant at a Zara store in London after graduating from the European business school at the University of London in 2007, and later took on positions in sales merchandising and branding at the parent company Inditex. She’s worked at the company for more than 15 years now.

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Now aged 38, she has bypassed her older siblings to add the most impressive role on her resume. From April 1, she will lead the fashion empire, in the role of non-executive chairperson. When her father announced Pérez as his successor, share prices plummeted by 6 per cent, dropping more than US$3 billion from founder Ortega’s fortune, reports Forbes. Still, they rebounded by 4.5 per cent the next day.

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Despite Pérez heading up Zara, the title of Spain’s second richest person goes to her 53-year-old half-sister Sandra – who doesn’t participate in the family business, but is worth US$6.9 billion. The trained psychologist – who has a husband and three children – inherited a 4.5 per cent stake in the company after her mother Rosalia Mera died in 2013.

Mera started the company with her then-husband in 1975 (the same year the couple divorced). Pérez’s mother, Flora Pérez, is Amancio’s second wife.

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It’s not just Zara ...

Marta Ortega Pérez is now officially one of the most powerful women in fashion. As well as Zara, she will head brands Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear and Bershka which all fall under the parent company Inditex. When she’s not working at the headquarters in La Coruna, Pérez sits front row at designer fashion shows and attends events with her famous friends including Vogue contributing editor and Moda Operandi co-founder Lauren Santo Domingo, Monaco royalty Charlotte Casiraghi and Queen Letizia of Spain.

The current CEO Pablo Isla has said that although Pérez – who has been overseeing womenswear at the company – is very “humble” she has “strong opinions” about many things, according to El País.

Her 2018 wedding was the social event of the year

Pérez started dating Carlos Toretta, who now works in public relations at Inditex, in 2017, and the couple married a year later. It’s no surprise the heiress wore a Valentino gown for the ceremony, then changed into a jumpsuit by the designer brand afterwards. Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Norah Jones and Jamie Cullum sang at their nuptials.

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The couple welcomed their first child – a daughter, Matilda Torretta Ortega, in 2020. The keen equestrian also has a son from her previous marriage to fellow equestrian Sergio Álvarez Moya who she married in 2012.

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