At 27, after losing her job at British Vogue in 1995, Tamara Mellon lived in her parents’ basement while battling addiction.
In 1996, she met Jimmy Choo, a bespoke shoemaker in Hackney, and convinced him to partner, using a £150,000 loan from her father to seed the venture. They began making shoes for fashion shoots, capturing industry attention.
She shifted from bespoke to ready‑to‑wear, setting up production in Italy while she handled logistics from a basement office in London. The brand hit 3 million euros annual profit by 2000 and was stocked in 450 stores, including Harrods and Selfridges.
Leveraging celebrity endorsements, the shoes appeared on Oscar red carpets and in “Sex and the City,” pushing the company to a $800 million valuation. In 2011, Labelux acquired Jimmy Choo for £525.5 million, with Mellon's share worth €85 million.
Mellon used the proceeds to publish her memoir “In My Shoes” and to launch new ventures, while she remains a key figure in luxury fashion and advises emerging designers on brand control.