I received this wonderful "thank you" from a client of mine in Illinois after our Skype consult for a wedding she was attending the following day..... I got the leather boots from 9 west and and patton pumps. I also got the long black string beaded necklace from nordstrom. Wearing it with the boots and love how I feel and my man loves how I look...success!
Much appreciation to you! Peg
Jimmy Choo was launched in 1996 when Tamara Mellon, Accessories Editor at British Vogue realized the potential demand for stylish but wearable shoes and approached Mr Jimmy Choo, the couture shoe maker based in the East End of London, recognized for his excellent craftsmanship. Tamara partnered with Mr Jimmy Choo to start the ready-to-wear shoe company and opened the first stand alone boutique on Motcomb Street, London along with a strong wholesale business. Sandra Choi, Mr Jimmy Choo’s niece, was named Creative Director, a position she holds to this day, reporting to Tamara Mellon.
In 1998, Jimmy Choo opened its first boutique in New York followed by Los Angeles in 1999. Sparking an immediate success amongst young Hollywood, Jimmy Choo became synonymous with the “red carpet” shoe of choice and was hailed the lucky charm for Oscar winners such as Cate Blanchett, Halle Berry, Hilary Swank and many other Hollywood actresses.
In April 2001, Mr Jimmy Choo’s equity share of the business was purchased by Equinox Luxury Holdings Ltd. During this period, Jimmy Choo saw its first significant expansion and the introduction of handbags. In November 2004, Lion Capital acquired a majority shareholding, valuing the company at £101 million. In February 2007, a majority shareholding of Jimmy Choo was acquired by TowerBrook Capital Partners, the international private equity firm, a deal which valued the company at £185 million.
Today, Jimmy Choo encompasses a complete luxury lifestyle accessory brand with women’s shoes, handbags, small leather goods, sunglasses and eyewear. Its products are available in the growing network of Jimmy Choo freestanding stores as well as in the most prestigious department and specialty stores worldwide. From its original base in the United Kingdom and United States, the Jimmy Choo store network now encompasses over 100 locations in 32 countries.1
Mellon had frequently visited Choo’s Hackney workrooms when she was at Vogue, often having him create shoes for a shoot. With her father as chairman of the new company, she opened a shop that she filled with the sort of shoes she liked to wear. “It was only logical,” she points out. “I am the customer. I understand the lifestyle. I know what sort of shoes women in my world need. I have the ideas and Jimmy’s niece designs them for me.” From the first collection, her Knightsbridge shop became a magnet for the international super-rich and sexy.
Since buying Jimmy Choo, Mellon has moved fast, and is now seen less as a society princess and more as a driven businesswoman.2
I previously blogged about feathers on footwear being a huge trend for spring. From Paris Fashion Week, check out Valentino's interpretation.... lace wings!!
Even people who have been hiding under a fashion rock have probably heard of Marc Jacobs. Whether they know it or not I'm sure they have even seen his clothes being worn around them.
Who
Despite his rocky personal life and recent substance abuse issues, Marc Jacobs remains at the very top of the fashion biz.
Backstory
Jacobs was born in the city; his dad died when he was seven, and he spent his childhood bouncing around the tri-state area, with stints in New Jersey, Long Island, and the Bronx. It was while attending the High School of Art and Design that he began embroidering jeans and sold his first line of knitted sweaters to the Upper West Side boutique Charivari,
where he worked as a stock boy. He went on to Parsons and then launched his own label in partnership with Robert Duffy, who had attended his senior year fashion show. Although the line was well-received by critics and received orders from Bergdorf and Bloomingdale's, it was far from profitable; it only lasted a year before Jacobs joined Perry Ellis as creative director in 1988. Four years later, Jacobs made waves with his legendary grunge collection, which earned horrible reviews and resulted in his dismissal (although ironically, he won the Womenswear Designer of the Year award from the CFDA that same year).
Jacobs and Duffy re-launched the Marc Jacobs label, opening a small showroom in SoHo. In 1997, with the label again struggling financially, Jacobs accepted an offer to become creative director of Louis Vuitton, a deal that also required LVMH to fund the Marc Jacobs label. He's juggled both jobs ever since, updating Vuitton's once-stodgy luggage brand
via collaborations with modern artists like Takashi Murakami as well as building his own eponymous fashion empire. As has been the case since the beginning, Duffy, the omnipresent man behind the curtain, handles the financial side of Marc Jacobs Inc., which allows Jacobs to focus on design.
Of note
Though Jacobs' work has evolved over time, he's generally known for his clever revamps of vintage styles, and a quirky, indie-rock aesthetic that appeals to hipster celebs. Sofia Coppola is a close friend and muse, and has appeared in his ads. When Winona Ryder went to trial in the fall of 2002 for stealing clothes (including some by Marc Jacobs), she exclusively wore his demure secretary's outfits and appeared in his Juergen Teller-shot adcampaign the following year. Now one of the
most influential brands in fashion (even though Duffy says it only became profitable in 2006), the Marc Jacobs brand encompasses women's and men's lines, a lower-priced Marc by Marc Jacobs line, the Little Marc children's line, fragrance lines, and an accessories line.
Indeed, the business is growing so fast that there are now four Marc Jacobs stores on Bleecker Street. Jacobs has reportedly also signed the lease on a fifth West Village store, at the corner of Bank and West 4th Streets, leading some to snipe that his brand is becoming as ubiquitous as Starbucks—and that's not the only negative attention the designer's been getting lately. On top of widespread bitching about his love life and his appearance (see below) his September '07 show didn't go down great with the fashion press, which deemed the clothes, and Jacobs himself, "obnoxious" (WWD) and "a parody" (Suzy Menkes). Not that the designer is necessarily too worried: As he admitted to the New York Times in November 2007, "what I love more than anything is attention. That is about as honest of a statement that I could possibly make. I want a reaction, because I want the attention."
In person
The designer has recently undergone a dramatic physical transformation: previously pale and verging on chubby, with long hair and big black-framed eyeglasses ("for 20 years, I wouldn't even look in the mirror," he's claimed), Jacobs is now crop-haired, skinny, and tanned, and sports contacts and Harry Winston diamond stud earrings. He says he spends two hours a day with a trainer and eats an exclusively organic diet. The new physique—as well as his appallingly corny tattoo of a smiling M&M man—was displayed in a spread in the September 2007 issue of Out where he posed in his underwear.
Image and information from http://cityfile.com/profiles/marc-jacobs
Clothing images from Neimanmarcus.com
