Apparel Billionaire Pays $45 Million for All-New Beverly Hills Mansion

by James McClain

Are big contemporary mansions, the kind built by brash developers on speculation, now out of style? Not if you ask Michael Mente, the cofounder of online clothing juggernaut Revolve. The lifelong Angeleno and newly minted billionaire has just paid exactly $45 million for a brand-new, ultra-glassy house that never even had a chance to officially hit the market.

Located on a hillside street in the northernmost reaches of Beverly Hills, the mansion was designed by prolific architect Paul McClean — the same contemporary specialist who also designed Nile Niami’s $295 million “The One” monster — and built by high-end stalwart contractor Tyler Development Corporation, with interior design by Annette English of Annette English + Associates and landscaping by Enzo Caserta Landscaping. Sited on a 0.8-acre lot, the house packs seven bedrooms and 10 bathrooms into roughly 15,000 square feet of high-style living space.

Because the property was never publicly listed for sale, photos are a bit scarce and some features remain a mystery. But it is known that the vast home itself has retractable walls of glass throughout, plus soaring, monolithic travertine walls both inside and out. Views take in the Century City skyline; on a clear day, the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island are also visible. For privacy, the mansion is sequestered behind a gated, steep and notably long driveway. The landscaping is drought-tolerant, with long native grasses, mature agave plants and ancient olive trees.

Mente, 41, cofounded Revolve in 2003 with business partner Mike Karanikolas. Today, the millennial-centric company is one of the world’s largest and best-known e-commerce fashion businesses, peddling clothes from over 500 fashion brands, plus 20 in-house brands. Revolve went public in 2019 with a $1.2 billion valuation; since then, the stock has soared.

Mente is particularly known for being one of the first to pioneer “influencer marketing” to sell products, building a network of over 7,500 social media celebrities and Instagram influencers. Whatever you think of that strategy, it’s worked exceedingly well — today, Revolve sports a market cap of $3.6 billion, and Mente’s personal net worth tops $1 billion.

And astute real estate watchers may recognize Mente’s name. Way back in 2013, he famously paid $4.7 million to “Friends” star Matthew Perry for his high-style contemporary home in the Outpost Estates neighborhood of the Hollywood Hills, which has served as Mente’s main residence ever since. Last year, Mente also paid $10.6 million for a vast vineyard property in the wine-friendly Santa Ynez Valley, near Santa Barbara.