It’s been 14 years since Tamara Mellon, then an accessories editor at British Vogue, first partnered with a bespoke London shoemaker named Jimmy Choo in what would prove to become a watershed moment in the history of footwear, transforming every woman’s love affair with expensive stilettos into the creation of a global empire. Since then, the Jimmy Choo brand has gone on to infiltrate popular culture on a mass scale, becoming synonymous with a kind of feminine luxury lifestyle that Mellon herself—strong, smart, independent, and glamorously larger than life—has come to personify.
Mellon’s business savvy is well-documented: She was among the first to bring designer shoes to the red carpet at a time when dressing celebrities was still a new concept, and she set up camp in a hotel room before the 1999 Oscars for fittings. In 2001, Choo sold his 51 percent stake in the business.
Nevertheless, demand for the shoes only increased. Over the last several years, Mellon has driven not only the growth of the brand, overseeing collaborations with H&M, Hunter, and Ugg, among others, but also its creative development, and took an active role in the design aspects of Jimmy Choo’s shoe and accessory lines, as well as forays into new areas, including the launch of a fragrance.
No comments:
Post a Comment