Lauren Goldstein Crowe - The Jimmy Choo Story: Power, Profits and the Pursuit of the Perfect Shoe

Acknowledgments

On January 11, 2005, on a cold wet London afternoon the authors met at Sagras house near St. Jamess Park to talk about what we had done after leaving our respective jobs. We had met three years earlier when Lauren was a senior writer covering fashion and luxury for Time magazine and Sagra was the head of luxury goods equity research at J.P. Morgan. But as tea and cookies made way for wine and chips, a larger purpose for the meeting began to emerge. What if we teamed up to write books about the business of luxury? Various subjects were discussed, among them Jimmy Choo. While putting together a plan, Lauren began working with Sagra at the offices of Hemisphere One, a private equity company she was starting at the time. Some of the partners at Hemisphere One made a small personal investment in Harrys of London, the shoe company started by Matthew Mellon. The company is now part of Atelier, a private equity fund financed by Compagnie Financire Richemont, and the partners still retain a small share. For several months the British newspapers had been writing about Jimmy Choo and the people involved in it almost daily. First Jimmy Choo was sold to Hicks Muse Europe. Then the founders of Hicks Muse separated themselves (and Jimmy Choo) from their partners in the U.S. and set up Lion Capital in London. A mantra began to be heard in the office: This Would Make a Great Book. This sentiment was echoed by friends and prospective agents. The other possible subjects were shelved. On the last day of March, Lauren met with Tara ffrench-Mullen, the public relations director of Jimmy Choo, to broach the idea of an independent book. Over the next two months the authors met with then CEO of Jimmy Choo Robert Bensoussan, president Tamara Mellon, and Lyndon Lea, the majority shareholder at the time. All three could see the advantages in a high-profile book but were wary about the prospect of a project that would be outside their control. But with their knowledge and tacit permission the authors put together a proposal. Our agents, Kim Witherspoon and David Forrer at Inkwell in New York and Elizabeth Sheinkman at Curtis Brown in London, then brokered the sale to Bloomsbury.

As we were to learn later, while we were writing and marketing the proposal, internal relations between the top managers at Jimmy Choo were under great strain. Eventually the company officially decided that it would not participate. Due to this restriction, in order to bring the scenes to life, quotes from some of the key players have been taken from previously published articles. But to reconstruct the events, most of which have never been reported before, the authors have relied largely on firsthand reporting with sources in and around the company, both on and off the record. Off-the-record emissaries were received from nearly all camps. They cannot be thanked for obvious reasons. What follows is a list of people who can be thanked: A small but crucial minority.

Following the sale of Jimmy Choo to TowerBrook, Lyndon Lea had several conversations with the authors over the objections of some of his more cautious advisers because, as he said with his typical candor, I told you I would. For this we would like to thank him. We would also like to thank Justin Abbott, the banker who had us in stitches when he told us his version of the sale to Lion Capital and provided a critical introduction to Akeel Sachak, his former colleague at Rothschild, who worked on two of the Jimmy Choo sales. Philip Rogers and Lou Rodwell, two of Tom Yeardyes oldest colleagues, both of whom worked for the company, helped fill in not only details about the earliest days of its operations, but about Tom himself. They also helped make an introduction to Ann Yeardye, Toms widow and Tamaras mother. Despite the fact that the lawsuit her daughter filed against her was still pending, Ann, over the course of nearly twenty hours, had no qualms about speaking openly about her life with Tom and their involvement in Jimmy Choo, an almost unheard-of occurrence where lawyers and lawsuits are involved. Marilyn Heston, the woman most responsible for the now instinctual connections between Jimmy Choo shoes and celebrities, was also happy to tell us her side of the story. Cameron Silver of L.A.s premier vintage shop, Decades, and Mark Holgate and Harriet Quick of American and British Vogue , respectively, all helped provide historical context and offered up suggestions for further sources. Marius Brinkhorst, a former colleague of Sagras at J.P. Morgan and a great friend, vouched for us to Lyndon Lea and provided comments on the proposal. Tom Walker, a partner at the private equity firm CCMP Capital and also an alumnus of J.P. Morgan, provided both insights into the workings of private equity and valuable introductions. Lisa Rachal, the luxury goods analyst at Redburn Partners, was always ready to help with valuations and other tricky calculations. Ben Valentin, a barrister at 34 South Square, read through stacks of court filings to make sure that the few hundred words we included on the complex litigating taking place in Jersey and in Los Angeles were accurate.

We were fortunate to land the most overqualified researcher of all time, Melanie Warner, a seasoned journalist and alumna of both Fortune and the New York Times .

Many pages were written in the lavish confines of Andy and Blanche Sibbalds house in Studland, and Andy also provided an introduction to the team at Phoenix Equity Partners.

We would also like to thank Patrick McCarthy, the guardian of the Fairchild Publications legacy. Although he in no way participated in this book, every fashion journalist owes a great debt to the staff of WWD and Footwear News , which have fulfilled the mission of the founder to be the papers of record of fashion. Without the diligent work of their reporters many of the details of thisand every fashion storywould have been lost to time. The people still on staff who helped out off the record know who they are.

Most of our friends were more than willing to serve as an impromptu focus group. Silje Augustson, Miriam Shea, Tereska Buzek, Francesca Tondi, Iain Johnston, Dan and Dominique Goldstein, and Rory Tobin all kept our spirits up even as the inevitable rejections came in.

Sagras colleagues at Reig Capital provided the flexibility needed to squeeze in more than a few interviews during her working hours.

Most important, we would like to thank our families. In addition to taking on more than his fair share of childcareno small thing when the children in question are twins under the age of fourDan Crowe also helped guide us through the mysterious waters of agents and publishers. Ian Rosen was our cheerleader, our taskmaster, and our landlordtaking the transformation of his house to office in stride. Isabel Rosen, Sagras seven-year-old daughter, was an avid contributor to the title selection process ( Top Choo was her favorite choice). Sandy Rosen, Sagras father-in-law and an attorney in San Francisco, and his assistant Rosemary, kept us posted on the developments of the Mellon vs. Yeardye suit in Los Angeles Superior Court. Marcia Goldstein, Laurens mother, proofread every page before the initial submission to Bloomsbury so that we wouldnt be embarrassed by dangling participles or spelling mistakes. Any remaining faults are ours and ours alone.

Afterword

TAMARA MELLON continues to be the president of Jimmy Choo, a shareholder, and a member of the board of the company. In addition, she was appointed a member of the board at Halston (she later resigned in the summer of 2009) and at Revlon, Inc. She is considering launching a ready-to-wear line under her own name.

SANDRA CHOI remains the creative director of Jimmy Choo.

JIMMY CHOO continues to operate his couture business from his shop in Bayswater, although he considered shuttering the business at the end of 2008 because of difficulty in obtaining components needed to stay abreast of fashion trends. He stays involved with the De Montfort University in Leicester, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2004 and taught a master class for design students in 2009. He has also ventured into the world of food, opening a Chinese/Malaysian restaurant, Maximini, in London.