What is Julia Haart's Net Worth?
Julia Haart is a fashion designer who has a net worth of $50 million. Julia Haart previously served as the CEO of the media conglomerate Elite World Group. She also owned a namesake shoe collection and served as the creative director of the Italian luxury house La Perla. Haart is the subject of the Netflix documentary miniseries "My Unorthodox Life," which covers her decision to leave her Haredi Jewish community in New York.
Early Life and Education
Julia Haart was born as Juliaa Leibov on April 11, 1971 in Moscow, Soviet Russia as the eldest of eight children of Haredi Jewish parents. When she was three, she moved with her parents to the United States, settling in Austin, Texas. There, Haart attended private school as the only Jewish student in the school. The family eventually moved to Monsey, New York to be in its large Haredi community. Haart went to Bais Yaakov Academy in Brooklyn, and taught herself how to sew. When she was 18, she changed her first name to the more Hebrew-sounding Talia so she could attract an Orthodox Jewish mate.
Career Beginnings
Haart began her career as a Judaic studies teacher at Yeshiva Atlanta, the first Jewish secondary school in the Atlanta, Georgia metro area. There, she went by the name Talia Hendler, and was beloved for her keen teaching style. Meanwhile, she secretly sold life insurance on the side.
Fashion Career
Haart entered the professional world of fashion in 2013 after leaving the Haredi community. She founded her namesake shoe company at that time, with her goal being to produce shoes that emphasized both fashion and comfort. Partnering with some other companies, Haart used a NASA gel to create a comfortable high-heeled shoe. In 2016, she collaborated with the luxury Italian lingerie and swimwear maker La Perla for the brand's spring and fall accessory collections. Haart was also named the creative director of the brand. In her position, she created the first stretch Leavers lace and launched a ready-to-wear lingerie collection with built-in support. In 2017, Haart produced a runway show for La Perla featuring such models as Naomi Campbell, Sasha Pivovarova, and Lindsey Wixson. That same year, she gained renown for the dress she designed for Kendall Jenner's Met Gala appearance, a gown consisting of 85,000 crystals adorning a single string.
In March of 2019, Haart was named the CEO and CCO of the media conglomerate Elite World Group, which oversees the talent agency Elite Model Management. Under her leadership, EWG added new divisions and focused more on assisting models in monetizing their brands. Haart also became the creative director of the EWG luxury fashion brand e1972, through which she launched an acclaimed collection. However, in early 2022, she was fired by EWG owner and her ex-husband Silvio Scaglia on charges of company embezzlement. Haart was replaced as CEO by her predecessor Paolo Barbieri.
Legal Cases
After being fired from EWG, Haart sued Scaglia in Delaware, the location of EWG's parent company Freedom Holding. She claimed to be a 50-50 owner of EWG, making it impossible for her to be fired. Ultimately, in a final ruling by vice chancellor Morgan T. Zurn in August of 2022, it was determined that Scaglia was in fact the controlling shareholder of the company, and that Haart had been properly terminated from her position as CEO.
Just days after the trial regarding her dismissal from EWG, Haart had another trial pertaining to claims of being abused by Scaglia. She also lost that trial, as Justice Douglas Hoffman of the New York Supreme Court determined that her accusations were false, and had been made in retaliation for her termination from EWG and to gain exclusive occupancy of Scaglia's $65 million penthouse apartment.
(Photo by Joe Maher/Getty Images for Elephant Family)
My Unorthodox Life
Haart is the subject of the 2021 Netflix documentary miniseries "My Unorthodox Life," which documents her decision to leave the Haredi Jewish community in Monsey, New York. She claims that she left the community due to disagreement with its stringent mores and how they were impacting the growth of her children. The show also features her children, as well as her ex-husband Silvio Scaglia and her best friend and business partner Robert Brotherton.
While some received the show positively, "My Unorthodox Life" was met with heavy criticism from the Orthodox Jewish community, many of whose members found the series to be anti-Orthodox. The most vehement critics claimed that the show even promoted and enabled antisemitism by casting observant Jewish people in a highly disparaging light.
Personal Life
From her first husband, Yosef Hendler, Haart has four children named Batsheva, Shlomo, Miriam, and Aron. She was later married to Swiss media billionaire Silvio Scaglia from 2019 until their divorce in 2022. On the same day Haart filed for divorce, Scaglia fired her from EWG.
Manhattan Penthouse
In 2018, a year before their marriage, Silvio paid $56 million for a 10,000 square foot Tribeca, Manhattan triplex penthouse. On the Netflix series, this apartment is referred to as "the Haart Penthouse."
In the wake of their divorce the couple launched a battle over the penthouse.
