Female Fashion Entrepreneurs

Kate Spade was an American entrepreneur and fashion designer. Spade is credited with founding Kate Spade New York, a popular luxury fashion design house, which competes with the likes of Michael Kors. Kate Spade is also credited with creating stylish and affordable handbags that caused quite a revolution in the fashion world.

Known for her “valley girl’ accent, Kristin Cavallari gained fame with the MTV reality series Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County. Apart from gracing the cover of Seventeen, she has also been featured in Rolling Stone. She is now a fashion designer with her own brands Uncommon James and Little James.

Tina Knowles is an American fashion designer and businesswoman. In 2004, she launched House of Deréon, a now-defunct ready-to-wear fashion line. While her fashion brands, such as Miss Tina and House of Deréon, have been generally regarded as one of her most important contributions, her biggest contribution to the society is letting her daughters, Beyoncé and Solange ,follow their passion.

Miuccia Prada is an Italian businesswoman and fashion designer. The granddaughter of Mario Prada, Miuccia is the head designer of the popular luxury fashion house Prada, which was founded by Mario Prada. Miuccia Prada is credited with founding Prada's subsidiary, Miu Miu. In 2014, Miuccia Prada was ranked 75th in Forbes magazine's most powerful woman in the world list.

Best remembered for her agency Wilhelmina Models, Dutch model Wilhelmina Cooper was the daughter of a German butcher and took to modeling after moving to the US. Known for her curvy figure and high cheekbones, she graced the cover of Vogue 28 times.

Apart from being the wife of Irish golfer Darren Clarke, Alison Campbell, née Smyth, has also been a successful model and a former Miss Northern Ireland. Now a successful entrepreneur in her own right, she owns a modeling agency, with clients such as Zoe Salmon from Blue Peter.

Often credited as the inventor of hot pants, Mariuccia Mandelli, a self-taught fashion designer, began her career in her friend's apartment with a secondhand sewing machine, lugging suitcases of samples round small shops. Hailed as the Godmother of Italian Fashion, she later founded Krizia, one of Italy’s first ready-to-wear houses, which over the time grew into a $500 million business.