Tory Burch | |
---|---|
Born | Tory Robinson June 17, 1966 |
Education | University of Pennsylvania (BA) |
Occupation(s) | Fashion designer Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Tory Burch LLC[1] |
Spouse(s) | William Macklowe (1993; divorced) J. Christopher Burch (1996–2006; divorced) Pierre-Yves Roussel (2018–present) |
Tory Burch (née Robinson; born June 17, 1966) is an American fashion designer, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She is the Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of her own brand, Tory Burch LLC.[1] She was listed as the 88th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2020.[2]
Early life and education
Burch was born in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania,[3] the daughter of Reva (née Schapira) and Ira Earl "Bud" Robinson (1923–2007).[4] She was raised with her three brothers in a 250-year-old Georgian farmhouse near Valley Forge National Historical Park.[5]
Her father was a wealthy investor who inherited a stock exchange seat and a paper cup company.[5] Burch is Jewish on her mother's side.[6][7]
Burch attended the Agnes Irwin School in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, where she was a friend of jewelry designer Kara Ross.[8] Her first job was at Benetton in the King of Prussia mall.[8] She then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in art history, and graduated in 1988.[5] Burch is a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.
Career
Early work
After graduating from college, Tory moved to New York City, where she worked for Zoran, a Yugoslavian designer,[5] followed by Harper's Bazaar magazine. She then moved into public relations and advertising positions at Vera Wang,[5][9] Polo Ralph Lauren, and Loewe when Narciso Rodriguez was there.[10]
Fashion label
Burch began her fashion label – "TRB by Tory Burch", later known as Tory Burch – in February 2004, launching it with a retail store in Manhattan's Nolita district.[3][11][12]
As of 2020, it has grown to include more than 350 stores worldwide;[13] the fashion line is also carried at over 3,000 department and specialty stores worldwide.[14][15][16] In 2015 Burch also introduced a separate performance activewear line, Tory Sport.[17][18][19]
Awards and recognition
In 2005, Burch won the Rising Star Award for Best New Retail Concept from the Fashion Group International.[3] In 2007, she won the Accessory Brand Launch of the year award at the Accessories Council Excellence Awards.[3][20] In 2008, Burch won the Council of Fashion Designers of America award for Accessories Designer of the Year.[21] Working Mother included her on their list of the 50 Most Powerful Moms of 2015.[22] In 2015, she received the Breast Cancer Research Foundation's Sandra Taub Humanitarian Award.[23][24]
Burch has consistently been included on Forbes' list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women.[25] As of 2020, she is listed as the 88th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.[2] In November 2019, Burch was named a Glamour Woman of the Year.[26] In November 2020, she was featured in a cover story in Forbes magazine on how her fashion company navigated the COVID-19 pandemic.[27] In 2021, she was named an inaugural member of the advisory council for the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum in Washington, DC.[28] In 2022, the Wharton School's Jay H. Baker Retailing Center and Retail Leaders Circle honored her with its inaugural Retail Excellence Award in recognition of her industry leadership and support of women entrepreneurs.[29] In 2022 she also received the Parsons Table Award from the Parsons School of Design;[30] the award "recognizes individuals who have made a noteworthy impact on the design industry and have inspired our students".[31] In addition, she received the CARE Impact Award for Women's Inspirational Leadership in 2022 from CARE International.[32]
In 2023, the CFDA Fashion Awards nominated Burch for Womenswear Designer of the Year.[33]
Philanthropy
Burch serves on the boards of the Council of Fashion Designers of America,[34] the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center,[35] the Breast Cancer Research Foundation,[36] the Startup America Partnership,[37] and the Barnes Foundation.[38] She is a member of the Industry Advisory Board of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School of Business,[39] and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[40] She chaired the 2007 spring gala for the American Ballet Theatre.[41]
In 2009, Burch founded the Tory Burch Foundation, which supports the economic empowerment of women in the U.S. through small business loans, mentoring, and entrepreneurial education.[42][43][44] Burch's stores sell products whose proceeds support the foundation's work.[45]
Among its initiatives, the Tory Burch Foundation offered an entrepreneurial education program, in collaboration with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses and Babson College.[46] The foundation also offers a fellows program providing women entrepreneurs with business-education grants, mentoring, and networking opportunities.[47][48] In 2023, the foundation joined with Billie Jean King and the International Tennis Federation's Advantage All program to launch the Tory Burch Foundation Sports Fellowship, which provides an education grant, networking support, and one-on-one mentoring for female entrepreneurs in the sports industry.[49]
In 2014, the foundation launched Elizabeth Street Capital, an initiative with Bank of America, to provide women entrepreneurs with access to low-cost loans and mentoring support.[50][51][52] The initiative, originally named for the location of the first Tory Burch boutique, is now known as the Tory Burch Foundation Capital Program.[53] By November 2017, Bank of America had committed a total of $50 million to the program,[54] and by 2018 the program was facilitating $1 million in loans each month.[55] By the end of 2023, it had disbursed $100 million in affordable loans[56] to more than 5,500 women entrepreneurs.[57]
In April 2014, the Obama administration named Burch an inaugural member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, a group of successful American businesspeople committed to developing the next generation of entrepreneurs in the U.S. and around the world.[58][59]
In March 2017, to coincide with International Women's Day and Women's History Month, the Tory Burch Foundation launched Embrace Ambition, a global campaign to address the double standard that exists around ambition, which is often seen as a positive trait in men and a negative one in women. The campaign includes a video PSA featuring a variety of celebrities, both women and men.[60][61][62] In September 2017, Burch wrote an opinion piece in Time on pay equity for women, noting how equal pay benefits society and business across the board.[63] In April 2018, Burch and her foundation hosted the first Embrace Ambition Summit, an all-day event supporting women's ambition and examining stereotypes about women and ambition in the workplace, at Lincoln Center in New York and also viewable on the Tory Burch Foundation website.[64][65][66][67][55] In March 2019, the Embrace Ambition initiative hosted a sequential five-day speaker series in five cities: Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, and New York.[68] The foundation hosted the second Embrace Ambition Summit in March 2020 in New York.[69][70]
In June 2020, Newsweek recognized Tory Burch as one of “50 US Companies That Stood Out During the Pandemic”, for providing $5 million of clothing, and 3,000 yards of fabric for face masks and hospital gowns, to frontline healthcare workers.[71]
In 2021, the Tory Burch company and the School of Fashion at Parsons School of Design announced a five-year multi-disciplinary educational partnership, and Burch announced the creation of an endowed scholarship fund at Parsons with a gift that will be matched to establish a $1,000,000 financial-aid fund.[72]
Controversy
In 2017, a Facebook Community called La Blouse Roumaine, which promoted Romanian traditional craftsmanship, pointed that a coat by Burch, displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and initially marketed as a garment inspired by Africa, was virtually identical to a traditional Romanian outfit. They also pointed out that other pieces from the same collection had many similarities with Romanian garments, including the sweaters worn by the Romania national rugby union team at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.[73] Burch acknowledged the similarity and responded: "In our effort to summarize the collection, we missed a reference to a beautiful Romanian coat which inspired one of the pieces. Whether it’s Romania, Uganda or France, we are a brand that strives to celebrate, honor and be inclusive of women from all countries and cultures, in the broadest way possible".[74]
In March 2021, controversy rose over a jumper designed by Burch which closely resembled a traditional fishermen garment made in Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal. The stylist had initially marketed it as a 'Baja-inspired tunic', in reference to Baja California, a state in Mexico. Pictures of the piece led to criticism from Portuguese internet users and the mayor of Póvoa de Varzim. Burch issued an apology in her social media and changed the description of the piece to "Póvoa de Varzim-inspired sweater".[75] Shortly afterwards, the Portuguese government announced its intention to take legal action and demand compensation for the heritage of Póvoa de Varzim, after which Burch removed the sweater from her website.[76] In November 2021, the municipality of Póvoa de Varzim announced that a settlement with Burch had been reached out of court.[77]
Pottery pieces created by Burch were also criticised as being virtually identical to Bordallo Pinheiro ceramics designs, which led to a protest from Bordallo Pinheiro owners Vista Alegre.[78][79]
Internet users also noted that Burch's logo is similar to that of a Portuguese stylist, Nuno Gama, and the Order of Christ Cross, a historical Portuguese insignia.[80]
Personal life
In 1993, she married William Macklowe, son of real-estate tycoon Harry B. Macklowe, and was divorced within a year.[81] In 1996, she married J. Christopher Burch,[82] an investor in Internet Capital Group, a venture capital firm founded by Walter Buckley and Ken Fox. They have three sons: Henry, Nicholas "Nick", and Sawyer. She also has three stepdaughters from his previous marriage. They divorced in 2006. She continues to use his last name, and for some time continued to live with her children in their New York City apartment.[83]
She dated Lance Armstrong in 2007.[84][85] Afterward she was for some time linked to Lyor Cohen.[86] In November 2018, Burch married Pierre-Yves Roussel, the former chairman and CEO of LVMH. He became CEO of Burch's company in early 2019 and Burch became Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer.[87][88][1] The couple had been dating since 2014 and became engaged in 2016.[89]
Forbes magazine estimated that she was a billionaire with a net worth of $1.0 billion in 2013.[90] She is worth approximately $850 million as of 2019.[91]
References
- 1 2 3 "About Us". ToryBurch.com. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
- 1 2 "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women: #73 Tory Burch". Forbes. Archived from the original on September 20, 2022. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
- 1 2 3 4 "About Tory Burch". ToryBurch.com. Archived from the original on July 8, 2007. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
- ↑ Lutz, Ashley (February 11, 2014). "How Tory Burch Became A Fashion Billionaire In Less Than A Decade". Business Insider.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Shnayerson, Michael (February 1, 2007). "An Empire Of Her Own". Vanity Fair. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
- ↑ "New York City - Examining The 'Halacha' If Jewish Fashion Mogul Needs A 'Get'". Vos is Neias. November 2, 2008.
- ↑ Grigoriadis, Vanessa (December 2012). "Tory Burch's Ex Factor". Vanity Fair.
- 1 2 O'Halloran, Caroline (March 18, 2011). "Rock star ascending: Main Line-bred jewelry maker Kara Ross". Mainline Media News. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
- ↑ Kroll, Betsy (September 21, 2007). "Tory's Turn". Time. Archived from the original on November 13, 2007. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
- ↑ Fitzpatrick, Tommye (September 10, 2012). "First Person - Tory Burch Says Work Hard, Think Long Term and Be Patient". The Business of Fashion. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
- ↑ Wahba, Phil (September 25, 2014). "Tory Burch takes on Ralph Lauren veteran as co-CEO". Fortune. Retrieved October 29, 2014.
- ↑ Agins, Teri. "How Tory Burch Found Her Stride". The Wall Street Journal. February 1, 2008.
- ↑ Peluso, Olivia (September 26, 2022). "Emily Ratajkowski, Tory Burch On Balancing 30 Million Followers And Their Two Cents". Forbes. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
- ↑ Clifford, Catherine (May 12, 2017). "Why one exec passed up the chance to be president of this $127 billion company". CNBC. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
- ↑ Portillo, Caroline McMillan (July 23, 2014). "Exclusive: Tory Burch on life 'Perpetually' out of her comfort zone and why big risks pay big dividends". Columbus Business First. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
- ↑ Zinko, Carolyne (January 25, 2013). "Empowerment in fashion for Tory Burch". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
- ↑ Tory Sport – Official website. TorySport.com. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
- ↑ Sherman, Lauren (September 17, 2015). "What Tory Burch Did Next". The Business of Fashion. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
- ↑ Haskell, Rob (July 23, 2015). "Tory Burch on Her New Sports Line, Finding Love, and Redefining Success". Vogue. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
- ↑ "Tory Burch and Kerry Washington". InStyle. Archived from the original on October 9, 2008. Retrieved August 15, 2008.
- ↑ "Letter to Fashion Community 25 August 2008". The Council of Fashion Designers of America.
- ↑ Drain, Kelsey (May 5, 2015). "Victoria Beckham, Tory Burch, Jenna Lyons Named On '50 Most Powerful Moms Of 2015' List". Fashion Times. Archived from the original on September 25, 2016. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
- ↑ "Symposium and Awards Luncheon October 29, 2015". BCRFcure.org. Breast Cancer Research Foundation. November 21, 2014. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
- ↑ Breast Cancer Research Foundation (November 2, 2015). "The Breast Cancer Research Foundation Celebrates $48.5 Million Commitment to Breast Cancer Research". PR Newswire. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
- ↑ "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women 28 May 2014". Forbes.
- ↑ "Tory Burch Has a Message For Women Everywhere: ‘Embrace Your Ambition’; Glamour; November 12, 2019.
- ↑ Çam, Deniz (November 30, 2020). "Inside Tory Burch's Covid Survival Sketchbook". Forbes. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
- ↑ McGlone, Peggy (August 20, 2021). "Billie Jean King and Tory Burch named to board of proposed Women's History Museum". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
- ↑ Lockwood, Lisa (March 1, 2022). "Tory Burch Receives Retail Excellence Award From Wharton's Baker Retailing Center and Retail Leaders Circle". WWD. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
- ↑ Browchuk, Eliseé (May 24, 2022). "The Parsons Benefit Returns Honoring Tory Burch, Lauren Santo Domingo, Darren Walker, and Kehinde Wiley". Vogue. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
- ↑ "Parsons Benefit". The New School. May 23, 2022. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
- ↑ "CARE 5th Annual Impact Awards Honors Tory Burch, Christy Turlington Burns, Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, Chang K. Park and President Samia Suluhu Hassan". CARE International. November 9, 2022. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
- ↑ Kennedy, Joan (September 14, 2023). "Luar, Khaite and Tory Burch Named CFDA Fashion Awards Nominees". Business of Fashion. Retrieved October 6, 2023.
- ↑ "CFDA Organization". CFDA.com. 2014.
- ↑ "Administrative Board". The Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. 2014. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014.
- ↑ "Breast Cancer Research Foundation Adds to Board". Women’s Wear Daily. March 13, 2012. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
- ↑ "Entrepreneur All-Stars Join the Startup America Partnership". whitehouse.gov. August 23, 2011 – via National Archives.
- ↑ "New Trustees Elected to the Board of the Barnes Foundation". Black Art in America. January 17, 2013. Archived from the original on March 20, 2013. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
- ↑ Jay H. Baker Retailing Center – Industry Advisory Board Archived March 15, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. Wharton.UPenn.edu. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
- ↑ Membership Roster – Letter B. Council on Foreign Relations. CFR.org. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
- ↑ "Pianist Lang Lang to perform at American Ballet Theatre's opening night". American Ballet Theatre. April 23, 2007. Archived from the original on October 5, 2007. Retrieved September 22, 2008.
- ↑ Tory Burch Foundation website
- ↑ Hale, Katie (April 15, 2013). "Pitch Perfect Isn't Possible — But Get Up Anyways". The Grindstone. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
- ↑ Burch, Tory (September 17, 2009). "Guest Post: Tory Burch on Helping Small Businesses". Fortune. Archived from the original on September 24, 2009. Retrieved January 10, 2010.
- ↑ "Defying the Downturn". CNBC.
- ↑ Lawrence, Vanessa (May 24, 2017). "Inside Tory Burch's Incubator for Female Entrepreneurs". W. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
- ↑ Stych, Anne (May 23, 2019). "Tory Burch Foundation expands fellowships to include 50 entrepreneurs". Bizwomen. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
- ↑ Weisul, Kimberly (March 7, 2019). "How Tory Burch's Foundation Is Working to Get More Money, and Confidence, to Women Entrepreneurs". Inc. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
- ↑ Schnall, Marianne (April 20, 2023). "'Supporting Women In Sports Is Good Business': Billie Jean King Teams Up With The Tory Burch Foundation To Empower Women In Sports". Forbes. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
- ↑ Davis, Shoshana (January 28, 2014). "Tory Burch joins with Bank of America to help female entrepreneurs". CBS News. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
- ↑ Portillo, Caroline McMillan (July 18, 2014). "illionaire designer Tory Burch says it pays to be generous, scrappy and a little stubborn". Bizwomen. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
- ↑ Verveer, Melanne (May 7, 2014). "The Other Gender Gap: How Women Entrepreneurs Are Getting Screwed Out Of Funding". Fast Company. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
- ↑ "Tory Burch Foundation and Bank of America Double Investment in Capital Program Supporting Women Business Owners". Economics Week. April 29, 2016. Archived from the original on October 8, 2016.
- ↑ "Bank of America's Funding of the Tory Burch Foundation Benefits Female Entrepreneurs". American Entrepreneurship Today. November 10, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
- 1 2 Field, Shivaune (April 30, 2018). "Own Your Ambition: Tory Burch On Thinking Big And Leadership in 2018". Forbes. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
- ↑ Quihuiz, Ariana (September 22, 2023). "Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About Tory Burch". InStyle. Archived from the original on September 22, 2023.
- ↑ Collings, Richard (March 28, 2023). "Tory Burch Foundation unveils finance tool for women founders". Axios. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
- ↑ "Announcing President Obama's New Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship". whitehouse.gov. April 10, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2020 – via National Archives.
- ↑ Robehmed, Natalie. "Obama Names Tory Burch, Reid Hoffman As Ambassadors For Global Entrepreneurship". Forbes. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
- ↑ Bernstein, Jacob (March 1, 2017). "When Did 'Ambition' Become a Dirty Word?". The New York Times. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
- ↑ O'Connor, Clare (March 8, 2017). "Fashion Mogul Tory Burch Talks Ambitious Women And Equal Pay". Forbes. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
- ↑ "Embrace Ambition". ToryBurchFoundation.org. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
- ↑ Burch, Tory (September 22, 2017). "Tory Burch: Why Equal Pay Is Good Business". Time. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
- ↑ Sundberg, Emily (April 23, 2018). "How I Get It Done: Tory Burch". The Cut. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
- ↑ Mehta, Stephanie (April 23, 2018). "Tory Burch Wants Women To Know It's OK To Be Ambitious". Fast Company. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
- ↑ Minutaglio, Rose (May 4, 2018). "Tory Burch Talks Ambition, Pay Parity, and the #MeToo Movement". Harper's Bazaar. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
- ↑ Kim, Leena (April 26, 2018). "Inside Tory Burch's Embrace Ambition Summit". Town & Country. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
- ↑ Meyer, Anna (March 4, 2019). "Tory Burch spreads the love–and the ambition–for women". Fast Company. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
- ↑ Booth, Barbara (March 5, 2020). "Tory Burch has women across the world talking — and wants men in on the conversation". CNBC. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
- ↑ Kim, Whizy (March 9, 2020). "The Tory Burch Foundation's 2020 Summit Was Full Of Big Names & Inspiring Moments". Refinery29. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
- ↑ "In Good Company: 50 U.S. Businesses That Stood Out During the Pandemic". Newsweek. June 29, 2020.
- ↑ Braun, Jennifer (October 26, 2021). "Tory Burch and Parsons partner on new scholarship fund". FashionNetwork.com. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- ↑ Sterling, Vivianne (June 12, 2017). "Is Tory Burch's Resort 2018 Collection a Plagiarism?". beautips. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
- ↑ Grigoras, Alina (June 13, 2017). "Romanian traditional coat, copied by designer Tory Burch". Romania Journal. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
- ↑ Petter, Olivia (March 26, 2021). "Tory Burch 'acknowledges mistake' over jumper labelled as Mexican: 'We celebrate all cultures'". The Independent. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
- ↑ Donn, Natasha (March 26, 2021). "Portuguese State takes on US fashion designer over "abusive appropriation" of fisherman's sweater". Portugal Resident. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
- ↑ "Câmara da Póvoa do Varzim aceita acordo com estilista norte-americana que copiou camisola poveira". Sol. November 10, 2021. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
- ↑ "Tory Burch: Há mais produtos com "inspiração" em Portugal para além das camisolas poveiras". M80. March 26, 2021. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
- ↑ Sousa, Tomásia (March 26, 2021). "Bordallo Pinheiro reage à polémica com Tory Burch". Cultura Ao Minuto. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
- ↑ "Tory Burch também veio a Portugal buscar a imagem da sua marca (e a vítima é Nuno Gama)". NiT. March 27, 2021. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
- ↑ Davé, Urja (2008). "Tory Burch". Archived from the original on January 30, 2010. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
- ↑ Fitzsimons, Amanda (August 1, 2008). "Tory Burch's Philadelphia". WWDLifestyle. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
- ↑ "Tory Burch". New York. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
- ↑ Silverman, Stephen M. (October 3, 2007). "Lance Armstrong, Tory Burch Break Up". People. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
- ↑ Salkin, Allen (June 22, 2008). "It's Not About the Bike". The New York Times. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
- ↑ Abravanel, Lesley (April 5, 2009). "Scene In The Tropics: The Hoff bypasses booze, but not the photo op". The Miami Herald. Retrieved April 17, 2009.
- ↑ Sherman, Lauren (December 11, 2018). "Tory Burch Names Pierre-Yves Roussel CEO". Business of Fashion. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
- ↑ Friedman, Vanessa (December 11, 2018). "When Your New C.E.O. Is Also Your New Husband". The New York Times. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
- ↑ Friedman, Vanessa (January 4, 2016). "Tory Burch and Pierre-Yves Roussel Become Fashion's Newest Power Couple". The New York Times. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
- ↑ O'Connor, Clare (January 3, 2013). "Fashion Tycoon Tory Burch Becomes A Billionaire (Thanks, In Part, To $200 Ballet Flats)". Forbes. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
- ↑ "Profile | Tory Burch". Forbes. Retrieved June 3, 2020.