This piece published yesterday by the Business of Fashion on Tory Burch's burgeoning empire is extremely timely given that Ms. Burch is due to have the launch party for her very first store in Singapore this evening. I'm a huge fan of Ms. Burch on multiple levels - she's a mom to three beautiful boys, a female CEO who heads up a company that is targeted to hit $800 million dollars in sales this year, and a designer who decided to go with her gut feel and set out on her own in spite of what everyone else said.
And it goes without saying that I love the preppy chic aesthetic of her eponymous line.
Here's a couple of things that I find particularly impressive about Ms. Burch:
1. With neither traditional business school nor design school training, Burch and her well-honed instincts have built one of fashion’s hottest properties in just eight short years.
2. She's a mom to three sons, Henry, Nicholas, and Sawyer (they've got to be a handful!)
3. She wore a light pink sequin and navy tulle Yves Saint Laurent dress to her high school prom. How very fashion forward of her!
4. She's the brains behind the entire customer experience - she gets what women want. With her first store "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."
5. She, unlike many heads of companies, really gets what social media is about: "I realized Twitter has to be my voice, it has to be authentic and interesting. It shouldn’t be about something on sale. The customer is very savvy. They want authenticity. They’re not interested in hearing about promotional things"
For more of her incredible journey, head on over to the Business of Fashion. Ms. Burch is full of insights for anyone aspiring to be, well, awesome. Oh, and if you're headed to the event this evening, DO SAY HI!
Credit where it's due: insights taken from the Business of Fashion interview with Tory Burch. Images via google.