Meet fashion label Staud’s glamorous founder Sarah Staudinger: her bags are loved by Kendall Jenner and Selena Gomez, Cher is her godmum, and she’s married to Hollywood power player Ari Emanuel
In 2022, The New York Times dubbed Sarah Staudinger “the new queen of Los Angeles”. And while we’re not sure who she stole the crown from, it’s easy to see why she might have gained such a moniker. Young, beautiful, successful in her own right and married to one of Hollywood’s most powerful men, she also has some very impressive friends.
So who is the woman people close to her simply call “Staud”? And how did she get to where she is today?
Cher is Sarah Staudinger’s godmother
LA native Sarah Staudinger was born in 1989 to Lebanese-American mother Joanna and German father Walter Staudinger. Per Forbes, Joanna was a fashion designer known for creating a popular shoe line in LA, while Walter worked in property.
Staudinger’s mum also happens to be Cher’s best friend since her teen years, and asked the pop star to be Sarah’s godmother. Per The New York Times, a sassy young Sarah used to call Cher “Shere Khan” – aka the villain from Disney’s The Jungle Book.
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She came up through the New York fashion scene
Less than flattering nicknames aside, Staudinger has said her mum and godmum’s love of fashion sparked her interest in the profession from a young age. “When I was growing up, seeing those photos of my mum and Cher, with their long hair and those insane outfits – it was definitely a huge part of what got me interested in fashion,” she told Footwear News.
She scored a place at the prestigious Parsons the New School in New York and, after graduating, got work as a buyer for cult fashion brand Reformation. According to The New York Times, within two years she was made fashion director.
She founded cult fashion brand Staud
By 2015, Staudinger had spotted a gap in the market for a brand that offered “a high-end aesthetic at an accessible price point”, per Harper’s Bazaar, and created Staud with with her business partner George Augusto. The label’s vintage-inspired pieces quickly became a cult hit, seen on everyone from Dakota Fanning to Alexa Chung. Its Moreau bucket bag was particularly popular.
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She’s married to Ari Emanuel
And if Staudinger wasn’t enough of a force to be reckoned with, her husband adds bucketloads of star power too. The CEO of Hollywood talent agency Endeavour first got the designer’s phone number in 2017, per The New York Times. Four years later, the pair tied the knot in a star-studded St Tropez ceremony. Emanuel is almost 30 years’ Staudinger’s senior at age 62.
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- Sarah Staudinger grew up around fashion thanks to her shoe designer mum and fashionable godmother Cher, so it’s no wonder she went on to create a cult label of her own
- The 35-year-old wed WME boss Ari Emanuel in 2022, and Elon Musk, Larry David and Tyler Perry all attended the star-studded St Tropez affair – even Diplo DJed