Tory Burch – Attracted to Risk

“When I think about fashion I think women will never lose that appetite for fashion” – says Tory Burch.

Her freedom?

She is a supermom of three boys – Henry, Nick, and  Sawyer, fashion designer guru, self-made business lady and  smart philanthropist. Her addictions are tennis, Charlotte Tilbury pinky- nude lipsticks, green tea and few monthly doses of risk. Tory is inspired by real woman of style as Christine Lagarde and Queen Rania. When you look at her you can see that gracious ingrained in her body and soul.

For Mrs. Burch ambition is not about just being in business, it’s about modus vivendi. “For me, it’s freedom in the way you see things turning out in your life, embracing that and being confident enough to go for it”. She built her multibillion fashion brand in 2004 and her company became an extension of her. Tory had a wish to design her stores so people could feel they are at home.

But when did her “fashion passion” dream start?

Let’s start from the early beginning. Burch’s mother wore pieces by “Zoran” who dressed Isabella Rossellini and Lauren Hutton. “Really interesting man and a beautiful designer. My mother wore his clothing.He said, ‘You can have a job, but you have to start in a week.’ So a week after I graduated, I moved to New York and started a full induction into fashion.

 

It was a very interesting time. He looked like Rasputin and vodka would start at ten o’clock in the morning. That was my first job.” It wasn’t until quite recently that she realized how much she inherited  from her mother. The way she walks, her love of fashion, her disdain for the bright colors and her ability to live life very much at the moment. After “Zoran” Tory’s business path continued in few directions – assistant in Harper’s Bazaar, PR and advertising at Ralph Lauren, Vera Wang and LVMH during Narciso Rodriguez’s tenure at Loewe.

 “Each of those experiences have added some element to how I run and build this company. I talk to entrepreneurs a lot about how each job might not be the perfect job, but you really learn from each job and you take something from that.” While thinking about her own company, she started to think about what she was personally missing.

“It was this idea of great American sportswear with a more global point of view. Pieces – like a great trench coat or a cigarette pant – that were well-priced. I thought there was an opening in the market between contemporary and designer.” Affordably luxury – it was a key to her own brand. Tory launched her own store in New York’s neighbourhood of Nolita.

Burch’s total control of customer’s  experience provided her really great power and her strategy worked.. “You could see who we were immediately, just by walking into an environment that we could make look exactly how we wanted – everything from the branding to the candle burning to the music playing. It was really an experience and we wanted the customer to feel that from the beginning.”

 “I’m lucky that I can be the designer and the CEO”

 She just followed her game plan – to create a new way of looking at retail and working behind the scene. According to her fashion is an incredible business. It is the second-largest industry behind finance in New York and her company has given jobs to 5000 employees. “I’m lucky that I can be the designer and the CEO. It allows me to be creative, but also look at business in a creative way. It’s a lot of different things coming at me, every minute, every day”.

Today, each of her brand’s stores is built around the idea of “creating a retail environment that feels like you are walking into a home. “Rome, we did in this ancient building was based on a Donald Judd sculpture, so it’s got very modern elements against very old architecture.”

Nowadays Tory Burch  is named as one of the America’s richest self-made women by Forbes. “The truth is, I was a bit removed, a bit of an outsider, and I liked that feeling. I still feel like that – with the uptown tribe and the fashion tribe. It’s like I’m in it but also an observer of it.” 

 

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