Tamara Mellon, co-founder of Jimmy Choo - Photo Courtesy of Portfolio/Penguin
A journalist at The Sunday Times once wrote that I often seemed less an actual person than the heroine of some dicey Danielle Steel bonkathon. take a plucky heroine, set her on a quest, and then subject her to every villain and viper and obstacle imaginable. Which, I suppose, is not an entirely bad summary of my life so far. -- Tamara Mellon
PRESS RELEASE: (Courtesy of Portfolio/Penguin)
The sexy, sultry powerhouse who put Jimmy Choos on Carrie Bradshaw and Hollywood's top leading ladies, built a billion-dollar fashion brand with the savvy of Mr. Big himself, and became the subject of worldwide media fascination, is revealing her secrets.
In her candid memoir IN MY SHOES (Portfolio/Penguin;October 1, 2013; Hardcover $29.95), Tamara Mellon shares her larger-than-life story, with genuinely shocking insider detail that's never been presented before. Success came at a high price struggles with an obstinate business partner, a turbulent marriage, and a mother who tried to steal her hard-earned wealth.
The silver spoon many assume she was born with carried a wallop. The seemingly glamorous mansions of London and Beverly Hills housed a tumultuous and broken family life, battles with anxiety and depression, and a stint in rehab. Determined not to end up unemployed, penniless, and living in her parents basement under the control of her alcoholic mother, Tamara honed her natural business sense and invested in what she knew best - fashion.
Relying on her impeccable sense of what the customer wanted, Tamara created the shoes that created a frenzy and became fixtures on Sex and the City and paparazzi-bait on red carpets worldwide. She was named the British Prime Ministers Trade Envoy and honored by the Queen with the Order of the British Empire. Vogue photographed her wedding. Vanity Fair covered her divorce, and the criminal trial that followed. Harpers Bazaar toured her London townhouse and her New York mansion, right down to the closets. And the Wall Street Journal hinted at the real red meat: the three private equity deals, the relentless battle between the suits and the creatives, and her triumph against a brutally hostile takeover attempt.
Tamara Mellon is the founder and former CEO, and later the chief creative officer, of Jimmy Choo, which she led for fifteen years. Since selling her share of the company, she has focused on creating a new eponymous lifestyle brand. She divides her time between London and New York.
From her troubled childhood to her time as a young editor at Vogue, to her fifteen years leading Jimmy Choo, to her very public relationships, Mellon offers a gripping account of the episodes that have made her who she is today.
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