[wpramazon asin="B004P5OPTS"]
Much more Jimmy Choo Merchandise
2011
24
May
Published under
Handbags | send this post
Tags: Choo, Choo|The, Glamorous, Jimmy, perfect, Power, Profits, Pursuit, shoe, Story, Towering, world
Your Jimmy Choos aren’t,
Jimmy Choo, the shoemaker, hasn’t had anything to do with Jimmy Choo, the shoes, for quite a while now. That’s what this book is about – the way a small, artisanal shoemaking company catering to a select group of wealthy women was turned into an international luxury ready-to-wear brand featured on television and the red carpet.
One of Mr. Choo’s customers was a young woman named Tamara Yeardye, a socialite with business in her blood. She saw the potential of the business, and used her social and business connections to raise the funds to capitalize on it. Convincing Mr. Choo, though, was even harder, but she did. The saga of Jimmy Choo (the company) is a microcosm of the world of start-ups, IPOs, leveraged buyouts, private equity firms, all the pieces that made up the financial picture of the late ’90s and early 2000s. And it’s also the story of some very powerful personalities, and how their personal lives and scandals affected the company.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book. The blurbs, and certainly the first chapter, read like a gossip magazine. But slowly and inexorably I was drawn in by the vivid way the authors describe the financial machinations, the growth of the company through multiple sales, the dealmaking. It’s easy to be misled by the initial portrait of Tamara Yeardye Mellon posing in “cleavage and stiletto shoes” by her nude photograph. Despite her social butterfly image, and the very real scandals she was involved in, she is one smart, driven and ambitious cookie.
The authors are, respectively, a journalist specializing in fashion and luxury goods, and an equity analyst and founding partner of a private equity firm. It’s not difficult to tell who wrote what, and the way in which the book bounces back and forth between Yeardye’s personal pecadilloes and high finance is a bit distracting. Kudos, however, to Ms. Maceira de Rosen for explicating complicated financial dealings in a way that makes them clear and understandable to the lay person.
The story of Jimmy Choo is, to me, a sad one. True, he is now a wealthy man as the world measures wealth. But he and his niece (who had worked with him in his shop but now works with Yeardye Mellon) do not speak. And the man who, with his art and careful craft, made the beautiful shoes that first attracted Yeardye’s attention now cannot use his own name without someone else’s consent.
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|Business, Personality and Luxury,
A Choo, his shoes, many capitalists, an investigative reporter and an equity analyst in luxury goods – Put them together and you get Crowe and de Rosen’s book The Towering World of Jimmy Choo. In fact, this tale is not just about a cobbler who had a flare for design and quality, but about many aspects of the luxury clothing/accessory business world. What holds the interest of a non-high finance or business person like myself is the fascinating mix of personalities driven to be the best at what they do and the capitalist system in which they achieved or failed.
In several chapters, shoes seem not to matter at all. Rather, Crowe and de Rosen introduced me to the business of luxury and the entrepreneurs and managers at its highest end. Indeed, one problem that I had was keeping track of all the names that were dropped. Not being in fashion or luxury, I suspect that I recognized about half the names. For this high recognition rate, one must give credit to the advertising departments at Givenchy, Versace, and a few others! Hopefully, readers more in tune with this industry will recognize more.
I think business majors would benefit by reading this book. It provides insight into acquisitions, mergers and deals as well as the business acuity possessed by Tamara Mellon and others seeking to make their fortune in luxury and glamour. True, Tamara had Daddy’s money to back her, but it was her drive and vision that brought a relatively obscure maker of shoes for wealthy women to the international attention of women in the upper middle class. At one point Robert Bensoussan, a primary Jimmy Choo manager, came to Phoenix Equity Partners to jointly set up an investment vehicle to hold luxury acquisitions, one of which was Jimmy Choo Shoes. The Phoenix managers never heard of this brand and were skeptical, so Bensoussan suggested that the managers go home and ask their wives what they thought of Jimmy Choo shoes. The next morning these same managers returned with great enthusiasm for the venture. As for Jimmy, he just wanted to design and make shoes for select clients.
This is a must read for people in the fashion field, especially luxury fashion, and for business majors. It is a good read for people, like me, just interested in learning about a heretofore unknown area.
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|Fun and Enlightening Account of the Luxury Goods Business,
I grew up in the luxury goods business-my father owned a textile company, and his wife was in marketing at Hermes, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and La Prairie. Till now, I have not read a book on the industry that wasn’t either a hagiography or written for a neo-literate. Luxury goods are a multi-billion dollar business, and there is a reason that a brand becomes established. The Towering World addresses how Jimmy Choo became a household aspirational product, both through clever marketing, its unique history and the keen business sense of its principals.
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|inspired and learning
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