A story of Jimmy Choo began more than 11 years ago. And with the help of two women: one was assiduous and other - very social. Three brilliantly skilled persons began this business with few opportunities, but with high hopes and ambitions. Who are they? And what did they have to achieve until the Royal British family started wearing their shoes?
One of three was Jimmy Choo. His skill was the basis of the Jimmy Choo “empire”. Jimmy Choo is a native of Malaysia. He was born in 1961 in the second smallest state of the Penang county. Should I say, in a family of local shoe-makers? As all children, he was interested in his parents’ business and tried to create his first shoes at the age of 11. Unfortunately, there is not much information about his family background, his childhood… and even now, he is just a man who does his job very well at his “secluded corner”. It is worth to mention that his real name is Jimmy Chow. In the beginning of 80's, he settled in London and began to study fashion design oriented on shoemaking. Cordwainers's Technical College in London and the London College of Fashion were places where Jimmy spent all his time those days. Inspired, talented… he had no money, no customs, no fame...
Second person played a dominant role in this story and gave a hand of help to the unknown Jimmy Chow. Tamara Melton became “a face, soul and muse of Jimmy Choo”.
Tamara is a Beverly Hills girl. She came from a successful and rich family, never needed money but went to work by father’s insistence (her father controlled Vidal Sassoon company). As a real beauty, she was addicted to shoes. This passion later helped her to get a job in London’s Vogue. Her job was to search for unique and stylish shoes for fashion articles in magazine. And she finally found what she was looking for… it was Jimmy Choo.
It was like a myth. She was looking for gold Greek sandals, and she found a man with gold hands who made everything from gold in her life instead. In the “secluded corner”, Jimmy and his helper, his niece Sandra Choi (the third person in our story) made their exclusive hand-made shoes of the best quality.
These days, Sandra Choi is a part of Jimmy Choo team (she is creative director), and she has unbelievable capacity for work. Jimmy has his skill to make comfortable shoes that seemed uncomfortable because of high heels, for example. Tamara – her father’s money. Though today they all have their own money earned by hard work but it was then, 11 years ago.
Tamara Melton was 27, she was already an editor-in-chief and suddenly Melton left her job. She believed in Jimmy Choo, a poor Chinese emigrant. Of course, Tamara already had a brilliant business plan and a big list of useful contacts which she gained during her Vogue period. To start their business, they needed money to open their office, money for bigger manufacture, money for everything. Tamara knew where she could get this money; she went to her closest friend – her father. Her father, a circumspect and a “hairy” person gave 250$ thousand for opening their company’s office.
They opened a shop in the center of London and began to work hard. Tamara was an inexhaustible source of ideas (relations, business plans); Jimmy Choo was an indomitable worker, and Sandra was very squeamish in preparing decorations for shoes. Better than any words, would say a fact that later Tamara’s father gave them 1, 2$ million for development. By the way, he became the president of Jimmy Choo Company.
Company’s income became huge. Unfortunately, the co-owners couldn’t work together anymore and in 2001 Tamara bought Jimmy’s part for 25$ million. The reason was misunderstandings between them. From her words, Jimmy was not interesting in marketing’s ideas and didn’t want to spend money on advertising companies. Anyway, Tamara knew fashion rules. In 2001 company’s income was 100$ million. She had an unhappy marriage with an awful divorce but at the same time, success in her carrier and birth of her daughter. You can read bout this in her book “Four inches”.
Though today a woman is the head of Jimmy Choo Company, this brand still has Jimmy Choo name. His talent was awarded many times. He got title Dato in Malaysia which equals a British knight's title. In 2003, got an OBE (Officer British Empire) from the Queen of England “for his services in making London’s name prominent in the world of design and the fashion industry”. But his most precious awards are all those famous and wealthy, pretty and particular legs in the world that choose Jimmy Choo shoes.
Today, Jimmy is the owner of a distinct Jimmy Choo enterprise. He makes 3 – 4 exclusive pairs of shoes a day and his client list consists of most famous Hollywood stars, wives of the richest men in the world, successful businesswomen and even members of some royal families.
It’s hard to say what would happen if Tamara Melton didn’t find Jimmy that day in London but what would happen if an 11 year old boy decided not be a shoe-maker and stayed in Penang, we can easily guess…
P.S. Rumours say that now Jimmy Choo company is for sale, its price approximately 150$ million and possibly it will be bought by Burberry.
On the Oscar ceremony, Jimmy Choo shoes were worn by: Helen Mirren, Penelope Cruz, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Emily Blunt, Jodie Foster, Minnie Driver, Sarah Michelle Geller, Jennifer Lopez.
