Every fashionista out there would have thought that Tamara Mellon, co-founder of luxury shoe company Jimmy Choo, was living the dream and loving her $900 million dollar business that she co-founded with her parents’ money. It would not be hard to imagine that she was content and loving the life that her company gave her – having an extravagant clothing allowance, being pampered by her own make-up artist and hair stylist on call, and being invited to A-list parties. Believe it or not, though, that was not at all the case. It turns out, for the majority of the time, Mellon felt “aggrieved”. She says that she was “unappreciated by executives at the company and exploited by the private equity investors who funded its expansion”, and was “betrayed by those close to her”. Mellon left Jimmy Choo in 2011 with $135 million and never wanted to look back, and released her book of resentment called In My Shoes. This season, though, Mellon is launching Tamara Mellon, her own line of shoes and clothes, with products in the collection still made in the same factories in Italy as Jimmy Choo. What is unique to Tamara Mellon is that instead of releasing a line every season, just like other high end luxury companies, she will release new products every month. Just last week she was preparing for fashion week in Paris. She is now happy that she “[has] the luxury now to choose who [she has] in [her] business”, people with “good ethics and values”. This goes to show just how crucial relationships are internally for a company. In this case, a company’s own co-founder left her company just to break free of being mistreated by her own team – something that should never happen. This demonstrates to be a flaw in the values of the company, proving that team-building is essential for a business to thrive.
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