Tory Burch
Her name sounds like someone straight out of ‘Gossip Girl’, but Tory is more like those Upper East Side school girl's successful, older sister. A former PR who’d worked at Loewe, Ralph Lauren, and Vera Wang, Tory launched her own line in 2004 and is now making an impact in the UK. If you like grown-up chic with a hip edge she is officially the name to watch.
Tory’s design stomping ground is classics with a twist - adding something more urban to Park Avenue Princess chic.
Since opening her first store in New Yorks’ Nolita in 2004 (she almost sold out of her entire collection on the opening day) sucess has followed quickly, despite the fact she has no formal design training.
Originally from Pennsylvania, she relocated to New York City after college and worked in fashion PR and marketing before quitting her job to start a family. But after a few years she became restless and started collecting tear sheets from magazines, pictures of paintings, old photographs and catalogues from vintage-clothes sales, putting them all into a black binder she calls her “black book of inspiration.” After taking soem advice form her pal, designer Narciso Rodriguez she spent a year working on ideas, only for 9/11 to put the project back. A year on sheopened her first store. She now owns 13 stores with six more planned and is set to expand overseas and add a multitude of new lines to her collection (particularly accessories) which is available at Harvey Nichols and Selfridges in the U.K.
In her first collection, it was her interpretation of a simple tunic, inspired by a £15 green floral print, vintage tunic she’d found at a Paris flea market, that became a fashion phenomenon.
For the current season she has helped perpetuate the gladiator sandal trend with her cute but classy version, plus bright knits, statement jewellery and big patent bags and for autumn/winter we love her paisley feathered prints, leather macs, and bold knits. Mark our words, when, not if, she opens a stand alone store in the UK, she’ll be a massive hit.
