This is the first item Zara ever sold

We’ll give you a clue: it wasn’t shoes

We’ll give you a clue: it wasn’t shoes

Remember when we told you why Zara is called Zara? Well we have another fun fact that concerns your favourite high street brand (we assume it is as it’s overtaken Topshop as the most searched shop).

It’s about the first item ever sold by Zara. Now we all know the Spanish fashion brand is brilliant for shoes, accessories and generally anything like this polka dot dress that’s flying off the shelves.

So we were quite surprised to find out that the first item sold had nothing to do with any of those… because it was a bathrobe.

Refinery29 got a preview of the new documentary Zara: The Story of the World's Richest Man (founder Amancio Ortega earns $761 a minute FYI), which revealed Ortega started his business making bathrobes.

He used to work at boutique La Maja with Rosalia Mera (who would later become his wife) and her sister and they created a cheaper version of a quilted robe that the store sold.

At the time, women would apparently go shopping in their robes as there was no heating in their houses, so he saw an opportunity to sell them a stylish robe, for a fraction of the cost of other stores.

He started selling them door to door before opening his company, and we all know how the rest of the story goes.

We actually recently got a sneak preview of the AW17 collection, which includes luxe velvet robes, so it certainly seems like Zara has gone full circle.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.