Tamara Mellon was just out of rehab when she launched fashion brand Jimmy Choo.
She went from being a “functioning addict” to running a global brand, going through three private-equity deals, surviving a hostile takeover and finally helping sell Jimmy Choo for £525 million ($A767m).
Mellon tells all in her book, In My Shoes, and sets out 10 lessons for entrepreneurs:
While recovering from a stint in rehab Mellon came up with the idea of producing a line of shoes with Jimmy Choo, a renowned couture cobbler who had designed shoes for Princess Diana among others.
Her business plan was simple although lacking in detail.
“Jimmy would design a line of exquisite shoes, and I would find a factory to make them and manage the sales and marketing,” she says.
“We would open stores and start a wholesale line to be carried in high-end stores all over the world, and we both would become incredibly rich.”
Things didn’t exactly go according to plan, but Mellon did achieve her dream of Jimmy Choo being carried in top stores around the world.
Mellon chose Choo to found a business with because of his top reputation as a shoemaker and says “anyone who’d ever shopped in London knew about Jimmy Choo”.
The deal struck was that Choo would design the collection and retain his couture business.
Mellon and her father provided the start-up money, management and business expertise, with each party, Mellon and her father being one and Jimmy the other, owning a 50% stake.
But despite his reputation, Mellon claims Choo was not the creative genius she had hoped and she was forced to drive most of the design process.
“It dawned on me that Jimmy was a cobbler, and he really had no interest in becoming a designer,” Mellon says.
“I had set up with a ‘creative head’ who, in fact, had no creativity.”
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Cara Waters is a former SmartCompany editor. Previously, Cara was a senior reporter for the Financial Times’ website and worked for The Sunday Times in London.
