People are just realising that Zara used to have a different name.
The fashion giant is known for its stylish womenswear, as well as accessories and some beauty products, and has been a high street staple in the UK for years. But, it wasn't always called Zara, and actually used to be named after a hit film from the 1960s, the Daily Star reports.
Zara was originally called Zorba, and was named after the film Zorba the Greek, starring Anthony Quinn as the title character. The multi-billion pound company started out as just one shop in a city in north west Spain.
READ MORE: Woman's Harry Potter-themed name 'ruined her life'
The clothing chain was started by a tailor named Amancio Ortega back in 1975 in A Coruña Galicia, Spain. He named the shop after the popular film, not realising that there was a bar nearby that was also called Zorba, also named after the film.
Despite having the moulds for the original name, quick-thinking Ortega fiddled with the letters and spelled out the name Zara – and the rest is history. As the story goes, the extra 'a' came from an additional set of letters that had already been moulded for the company.
US social forum Quora agrees with this theory, saying that the bar owner even tracked down Ortega. One user said: "In 1975, the brand's founder, Amancio Ortega Gaona, opened a small store selling his housecoats and robes in north-western Spain. Ortega called the store Zorba, after the film Zorba the Greek.
"However, Zorba the Greek was quite the popular film, as two blocks away there was a bar with the same name. The owner of the bar came over to Ortega's clothes shop to tell him that it would be too confusing to have two Zorbas in the same town.
"Ortega had already made the moulds for the letters in the sign, so he simply rearranged them to see what other names he could find. And as you can likely guess, he came up with the name Zara, and the rest is history!"
The businessman's newly branded store sold low-priced dupes of popular, high-end fashion items – a trend that the retailer still follows today. He opened more shops in Spain and in the 1980s, he changed the design, manufacturing, and distribution process to reduce lead times so Zara could react even faster to new trends.
Today, Zara has nearly 3,000 stores around the world and launched its first beauty line, ZARA Beauty, back in May 2021.
Life through a new lens. We are Curiously. Follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
READ NEXT:
