How Trinny Woodall built £180m empire after brutal TV show & battle over debt
SHE has gone from TV fashion guru to a multi-million pound beauty entrepreneur thanks to Trinny London – the cult make-up venture she founded just eight years ago. Now frank-talking Trinny Wo…
SHE has gone from TV fashion guru to a multi-million pound beauty entrepreneur thanks to Trinny London – the cult make-up venture she founded just eight years ago.
Now frank-talking Trinny Woodall is set to share her business brain with new-starters who want to follow in her lucrative footsteps as a guest dragon on Dragons' Den.
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Dragons' Den guest judge Trinny Woodall is a frank-talking businesswoman and TV starCredit: BBC12
Her brand Trinny London has made her millions across the globeCredit: Getty12
She first burst onto the scene with her pal Susannah Constantine, as they judged people's fashion choicesCredit: AlamyAnd if they want to channel Trinny’s incredible success they are big boots to fill.
New accounts, filed at Companies House shortly before Christmas, revealed her beauty brand racked up an impressive £56.7 million worth of sales in the year to the 31 March 2024 – its best year to date.
Since founding digital-first Trinny London in 2017, she has successfully scaled the business into a global brand that has sold a wide range of skincare and make-up products in 180 countries, with retail stores in the UK, Ireland, US, and Australia.
When Trinny, now 60, recommends a product on social media its sales rocket - proving her unrivalled power in the beauty business.
READ MORE FEATURESSavvy Trinny pocketed £33.2 million in the UK alone, as well as £17.4 million from the rest of the world and £6.1 million from the rest of Europe, according to sales breakdown figures in the financial statements.
Not bad for a former TV star who, a decade ago, was battling to save her home after a divorce wrangle and the death of her ex-husband left her facing a legal battle over is £300,000 debt.
Named Sarah Jane, the savvy star gained the nickname Trinny after she was sent home from school, aged five, for cutting off another girl’s plait - leading family friend and St Trinian’s creator Ronald Searle to liken her to a mischievous St Trinian girl. The name stuck.
She and pal Susannah Constantine rose to fame as fashion and makeover experts, writing a weekly column for the Daily Telegraph - Ready to Wear - highlighting affordable high-street fashion.
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The pair used themselves to demonstrate clothing that suited different figures.
Trinny Woodall: The Evolution of a Beauty Icon12
The pair often shocked fans with their brash criticisms and put-downsThey were soon snapped up by the BBC to host What Not to Wear -aimed at helping improve the nation’s dress sense.
The show was a huge hit - not least because of Trinny and Susannah’s trademark ‘boob-grabbing’, where they guessed participants’ bra sizes just by feeling their breasts, and their often ruthless analysis of guests’ fashion faux pas.
Even Trinny’s co-host Susannah has admitted the show would not be made today, telling Radio Times: "It was of its time and came along at the right moment, but it wouldn’t work today and I can understand why.
"People are fed up of being told what to do.”
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Trinny's daughter now believes the show would have been cancelled if it was on todayCredit: instagram/trinnywoodall12
The pair's antics would seem shocking nowCredit: Splash News12
They would often feel boobs to measure bra sizeCredit: SuppliedBut Trinny’s own daughter Lyla Elichaoff, had a more brutal analysis of her mum’s show telling Tatler: “I think they would be cancelled if the show was made now.
"You can’t really speak to people like that any more, and say things like: ‘You’re so ugly.’”
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Trinny was married to entrepreneur Jonathan Elichaoff for ten yearsCredit: Getty - Contributor12
Their split and his eventual death led to one of the most bizarre court cases in the UKCredit: Getty - ContributorDespite the huge wealth Trinny has now accumulated she has suffered her own fair share of tragedy and financial woes which led to one of the most bizarre divorce settlement battles of all time - from beyond the grave.
Trinny was married to entrepreneur Jonathan Elichaoff for ten years and had daughter Lyla before they divorced in 2009.
As part of the divorce settlement, it was allegedly agreed that Mr Elichaoff would pay his estranged wife £24,000 a year in maintenance costs as well as repaying a loan from the TV fashion expert totalling £1.4 million.
It was later revealed that the businessman had been declared bankrupt just before the divorce was finalised, which meant that the original settlement was rendered null and void.
In 2014 Mr Elichaoff took his own life. In what a spokesperson for the TV presenter then described as a “nightmare” situation, Trinny was then being pursued by the trustee in Mr Elichaoff’s bankruptcy for the debts he left behind when he died.
The creditors owed nearly £300,000 by the businessman claimed that as the wealthier party at the time of the divorce – due to Mr Elichaoff’s undisclosed bankruptcy – Trinny should have actually been paying her husband maintenance.
But in 2016 the case was rejected by the High Court - preventing Trinny from being pursued for the debt.
Talking about her money woes on a recent podcast she said: "So, there was that period when the life I thought I would create for myself had not... I had been earning a lot of money, I bought this big house, mortgage, everything.
"I had this big overhead and then I wasn't getting the revenue in, so I couldn't afford the big life."
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Trinny dated Charles Saatchi for over a decade, splitting in 2023Credit: Getty - ContributorThe following year Trinny - who was then dating billionaire Charles Saatchi - made the move which was going to make her serious cash, setting up online make-up brand Trinny London.
It boomed during COVID when stores were shut and customers hit online sites with a vengeance - and was valued at £180m by Forbes in 2021.
Since then it has grown with 2024’s business review reporting: “During the year Trinny London Group has continued its strategy of delivering incredible products to its customers, focusing on personalisation, education and engagement, and has delivered a strong set of financial results.”
It increased its headcount of staff to 221 from 204 upping the salary of its highest-paid director – presumed to be Trinny - to £361,321 from £309,086, as well as amassing £10.4 million worth of stock and netting as much as £41 for new shares in the business sold to investors.
The company’s growth is seemingly driven by Trinny’s restless desire to get fresh new products into the hands of her customers.
Trinny and Susannah's most savage quotes
On what showing off a bare midriff at work says about a person: "I look available and I'll sleep with anyone to try and work my way up. There's certainly no other reason why I should be promoted." Writing about what a party dress says, they wrote: "I'll be more than happy to let you peer down my cleavage just so long as you keep your hands to yourself. Once you've met me you won't want to leave my side." Speaking to Tatler in the 2000s, Trinny said: "Avoid pink lipstick if your teeth are yellow or if you are over 45 - what looks great on a young model can look muttony on older women." On who gets fashion and beauty wrong, Trinny said: "Soap stars who think that fake tan will cover up a late night. Fake tans should really be avoided in general." When a woman tried on a pink cardigan on What Not to Wear, Trinny said: "You look like an old woman trying to look young." When the woman asked: "Mutton dressed as lamb?", Trinny responded: "A little bit. For you that's impossible but you've managed to succeed." Upon meeting a social worker, Trinny asked: "Sometimes you are mistaken for a bloke, aren't you?" She then asks if the woman has ever had sex and if she's gay. Susannah to a female vicar: "Just because you wear a dog collar doesn't give you the excuse to look like a dog's dinner." After meeting a woman who underwent breast reduction seven years prior, Susannah said: "Huge knockers." Trinny agreed adding: "Bouncing up and down." After watching her in a pub, they pair tell viewers: "She's a fagger, a boozer, and a slob."Her firm is busily registering multiple product trademarks at the Intellectual Property Office, applying in November 2024 to secure the rights to sell goods under Eyetallics, Miracle Halo and Miracle Sun brands.
The proposed new product lines set to join internet sell-outs Flush Blush, Eye2Eye, Just Joyous and Energise Me and Lip Glow, among others.
Trinny has long been a champion for female entrepreneurs, launching an elevator pitch series on Instagram in 2019, where budding female founders can explain their business to her 1.4 million followers.
And she is keen to help other budding entrepreneurs as a guest dragon saying she believes it is important as an entrepreneur with a business that is growing to help others.
Read more on the Scottish SunShe says: “If you can succeed in a tough economic climate, you can easily succeed in a good economic climate.
"Although it might be the most challenging way to launch a business, I think it also gives entrepreneurs the greatest chance to thrive, because if you can break through when you've got the odds against you, you’ve really built something solid.”
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Trinny's brand has now grown - her salary is said to be pegged at £361,321 a yearCredit: Splash12
Any product Trinny recommends on social media flies off the shelvesCredit: Getty
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