first lady of fashion Tory Burch`s company is now valued at £1.25bn

first lady of
fashion
Tory Burch’s company is now
valued at £1.25bn
flying
solo
in only eight years tory
burch has built an american
fashion empire. will a messy
legal battle with her former
husband destroy the dream,
asks ruby warrington
bout five years ago, when the world was first falling in
love with Michelle Obama one hug at a time, I wrote a
piece in this magazine about the rise of the “alpha
positive” female. High-powered yet compassionate,
ambitious yet nurturing, she represented the
antithesis of the stiletto-wielding ballbreaker who
once had to fight her way to the top. Sitting across
from Tory Burch in the cosy and chic, if somewhat
higgledy-piggledy, corner office of her fashion empire (“Please
excuse the mess, we’re in the process of taking over the floor
upstairs”), it strikes me that she is the living embodiment of this
new feminine ideal. The warmth and enthusiasm she exudes —
asking me all about my recent move to New York, telling me she’ll
have somebody email a list of her favourite places — is clearly just
a hint of the A-list charisma that has helped create the Tory Burch
phenomenon.
At 46-going-on-25, with her trademark glossy highlights and
perfect caffe-latte tan, Burch was recently declared the second
sexiest CEO in the world by Business Insider (No 1, if you’re
interested, is Ben Rattray, of the petition website change.org). First
thing on a Monday morning her outfit is girlish and groomed:
a printed knee-length shift with a navy-blue cardigan. This is
23
corbis outline, wireimage, eroteme
Burch v
Burch
Tory and
her former
husband, the
venture
capitalist
Chris Burch
instantly recognisable “Tory look”, an affordable yet
aspirational version of her own style. Think easy,
glossy, feminine, chic: gold-logo flats, pearl-trimmed
cardigans, printed dresses and leather totes, worn by
the likes of Pippa Middleton, Emily Blunt, Kristen
Davis and, of course, Michelle Obama.
“It’s very Vogue staffer,” says Paula Reed, the
group fashion director of Harvey Nichols, which
stocks the label. Its biggest Tory Burch sellers are
flats and printed jersey dresses. “It’s a pulledtogether look that’s not too uptight. It’s a lifestyle —
her lifestyle — that you want to buy into.” Marigay
McKee, chief merchant at Harrods, which recently
opened a Tory Burch accessories boutique, says
that the key lies in its accessibility: “Tory Burch
offers our customers easy dressing, with trend-led
pieces. There’s a fun, wearable appeal that attracts
customers from across the globe.”
It’s a look that has made Burch one of the most
powerful women in fashion. And yet this mother of
three boys describes the £1.25bn company she
founded in her kitchen eight years ago as “like a
family also”. These days there are more than 2,000
people on the payroll, but recently her role as
matriarch can’t have been easy. Her former
husband, Chris Burch, who claims that it was only
with his financial backing and business savvy that
she became successful, has delivered her a series of
body blows, including launching a rival label,
C Wonder, which critics say is a knockoff of the
Tory Burch brand. Then, at the beginning of
October, he issued a lawsuit against Burch and her
board of directors, saying that they had interfered
with the sale of his shares in the company and tried
to sabotage his new business interests.
Her handling of the situation has turned out to
be a huge boost for her already impressive public
image, further cementing her reputation as the
golden girl of the American rag trade. “Gracious”,
“dignified” and “unflappable” are just some of the
adjectives that have been used to describe her
stance. Her good friend Tamara Mellon — no
stranger to legal dealings herself — describes her as
“amazing, an inspiration to so many women”.
When I ask Burch how she copes, she remains
perfectly composed, her elegant features arranged
in the same half-smile as ever. “It’s tough”, she
replies, “not only for me, but for the entire company
From top Tory
Burch AW12, Pippa
Middleton with a Tory
Burch bag, Tory Burch
AW12, Emily Blunt
wears Tory Burch
on the red carpet
I can handle
anything in
life as long
as my kids
are good
and my board. But it’s something we’re dealing with
and we will get through.”
Away from the office, she has obviously taken
refuge in what sounds like an idyllic home life. “The
way I look at it, my happiness is rooted in my
children’s happiness, and as long as they are safe
and happy then I can be too, and I can move on.
I can handle anything in life, as long as my kids
are good.”
Burch clearly dotes on her sons, the teenage twins
Henry and Nick, and Sawyer, 11, and tells me she is
spending every minute with them right now: “I’m
like, ‘You have me 24/7, whether you like it or not.’ ”
Although she describes her schedule as back-toback, she delivers her sons to school personally every
day and says she is home by 6.30pm. Weekends are
about “lots of sport — I also have three brothers”,
while pizza at Lucali in Brooklyn is a Sunday-night
treat: “They only do pizza, so you have to love it,
which I do. They even do Nutella pizza for dessert,”
she says. At 5ft 4in and weighing in at little more than
7st, it’s hard to picture. The quote I read elsewhere
that she “could eat gazpacho three times a day”
sounds a bit more like it.
Then there are three stepdaughters — Alexandra
(“Pookie”), Elizabeth (“Izzie”) and Louisa (“Weezie”)
— children from Chris Burch’s first marriage, who
are all in their twenties and whom she raised as her
own. “We always have a big Christmas dinner when
we’re all together,” she says, despite her divorce from
their father in 2006. Whether or not Chris will be
invited this year is surely another story; although, in
a Vanity Fair profile of the feuding couple, a mutual
friend said Tory wants to keep the kids out of it: “She
doesn’t want the boys to open the New York Post and
read about the fighting. And, wow, she’s in a really
rough place.”
It’s not as though they haven’t both moved on
romantically. A self-confessed music “obsessive” (“I
was listening to Eminem this morning, don’t judge
me!”), Burch is currently dating Lyor Cohen, a
former creative executive at Warner Music who
made his name road managing Run DMC in the
mid-1980s. Her ex-husband’s latest squeeze is
Monika Chiang, a 38-year-old former nightclub
manager whose eponymous clothing line he is
helping to launch.
Born Tory Robinson, Burch’s solid family values
25
Scarf, £100
tory
wear
Reva ballet
flats, £210
Glossed cotton
trench coat,
£790
Logo belt, £175
26
Print trousers,
£195
Tortoiseshell
cuff, £90
Metallic
skirt, £285
Quilted jacket,
£345
Fuchsia one-piece
swimsuit, £140
Bowling bag, £310
Amanda riding boots, £445
were fostered “on a farm” in Pennsylvania, where she grew up with
her brothers (they are still close, with one working for her company).
She claims she was “a complete tomboy”. Her fashion-conscious
mother, Reva, a former actress who once dated Steve McQueen
and Marlon Brando, encouraged her daughter to develop her own
style. Friends nicknamed her distinctive look, now copied by millions
the world over — blouses or cardigans worn with flared jeans and
chunky, statement jewellery — “Torywear” or “prock” (a mix of preppy
and jock).
She went on to study art history at the University of Pennsylvania,
before accepting a job with the minimalist designer Zoran straight after
graduating. “My mother was a huge fan, and I just cold-called and sent
my résumé. He said if I wanted it I had to move to New York and start
that week. I was scared I wasn’t going to get a job, so I did it.” There
followed stints at Harper’s Bazaar and copywriting for Ralph Lauren,
before she settled into a role in public relations at Vera Wang. All the
while she was learning what busy working women wanted to wear:
comfortable classics with a nod to the eccentricities of fashion, such as
the Reva logo ballet pump that has
been a bestseller for the brand since
day one. And her background in
the marketing end of fashion has
helped. “She understands the
business from a PR standpoint, and
that’s what business today is about,”
Wang says.
In today’s world, philanthropy
is also good “business”, and three
years ago Burch launched the Tory
Burch Foundation. A recent
glamorous sample sale enlisted the
help of Anna Wintour to raise
money for the hurricane relief fund.
When it comes to the battle of
the Burches, Wintour makes no
bones about where her allegiances
lie: “The person who has been at
every single appointment over the
years is Tory,” she told Vanity Fair.
“Tory is the one who has always
talked to us about her aspirations and her ideas for growth, how she
saw the brand, asked advice on people she might want to bring in —
it’s always been, as far as we’re concerned, 100% Tory’s business.” And
there are some similarities between Burch and the famous editrix —
they are said to share an unshakable focus, and both work out at the
crack of dawn each day. Meanwhile, Burch’s nickname on the tennis
courts (also Wintour’s battleground of choice) is “Mighty Mouse”,
because she hits the ball so hard.
As humble, as warm and as giving as she appears, there’s no doubt
that Burch also likes to win. “There’s always a stigma attached to the
idea of ‘ambition’ and women, but it is not a four-letter word, and we
have to embrace that,” she once said. Witness the current global
expansion of her brand, with 35 new stores slated to open over the
next year in locations as far-flung as China, Germany, Brazil and
Beverly Hills, as well as a fragrance and capsule cosmetics collection
with Estée Lauder in the works. It’s the way she’s going about it that
makes the difference, however.
“My experience in this industry is that people help each other,” she
tells me, radiating sincerity as ever. Even given the current sticky
situation with her ex, she says: “I’m such a positive person, I’m always
trying to find what good is going to come out of it.” So what advice
would she give somebody about going into business with their
husband? The facade cracks for a split second before she laughs and
shoots right back: “Yeah, I would say don’t.” £
there’s
always been
a stigma
attached to
ambition and
women, but
it’s not a
four-letter
word