Undercover couture OLSENS MAKE IT RICH!

TV's tiny tycoons are ruling the runway with a label shrouded in secrecy

In an unassuming brownstone, just off New York’s Madison Avenue, couture devotees are going quietly wild for the fashion label The Row.

Not that anyone except the über-wealthy – or perhaps those willing to mortgage themselves to the eyeballs – can afford the items on offer: a single T-shirt costs $580.

The label has other stores – in Los Angeles and London – and what all three have in common is a sense of pure, understated luxury. The label, in fact, is so understated, there are no actual labels sewn into the garments. Instead, there’s just a delicate gold chain.

Of all the people one might expect to find behind this subtly sophisticated fashion house, the names Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen aren’t high on the list. But as it turns out, these twins, who once charmed the world on US sitcom Full House, have moved on from being adorable child stars.

These days, they’re bonafide designers, worth an estimated $800 million between them. And what they’ve done in the fashion world has been achieved with virtually no fanfare.

“We didn’t want to be in front of it,” Ashley shared in a rare interview recently. “We didn’t necessarily even want to let people know it was us. We were like, ‘Who could we get to front this so that we don’t have to?’”

Anyone with a pulse in the ’90s will remember Mary-Kate and Ashley: at just nine months old they were jointly cast to play desperately cute Michelle Tanner in Full House. US Labour laws set strict limits on how long a child could work in a day, so the sisters took turns playing the role.