Ortega claims the title as the World's Richest Man again

Who says fashion doesn't pay has not met Amancio Ortega - the world's richest man. Founder of Spanish fast-fashion retailer Zara and majority shareholder of fashion conglomerate Inditex, Ortega has surpassed Microsoft's Bill Gates as the richest man in the world today - for the second time according to Forbes World's Billionaire ranking.

Arguably a historic event, Ortega is currently the world's wealthiest man with a net worth of 79.2 billion dollars, passing Bill Gates whose net worth is 78.5 billion dollars. Ortega previously took the title from Gates for one day, on October 23, 2015, but this time it looks like Ortega is here to hold onto his title.

Amancio Ortega is the world's richest man

For a man who started out selling quilted bathrobes in 1975, Ortega hasn't done too shabby. At the moment the fashion conglomerate accounts for 67.8 billion dollars of Ortega's fortune. The other 11.4 billion dollars comes from Ortega numerous real estate investments spread across the world. The Spanish billionaire currently holds 59 percent in Inditex and although he is officially retired, he is still active behind the scenes as a board member.

See our chart comparing the rise of Ortega's net worth and Gates below.

Inditex's rise to the top of the fashion pyramid is in part tied to its brands "fast-fashion" business model. Zara, as well as the other Inditex's 8 other fashionbrands, gained massive popularity during the financial crisis, between 2008 and 2012. This is mainly because the brands offered trendy products for low prices, which became more appealing when people had less money to spend on clothing.

Increasing demand for Inditex's brands, in particular Zara, helped the company's net worth reach 111 billion dollars in 2015, making Ortega the richest man in the fashion industry and perhaps even in fashion history.

Photo: Amancio Ortega, by http://www.signalng.com/ [CC BY-SA 4.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons