Front Row with TORY BURCH

In an exclusive conversation with ELLE India, the designer talks to Praachi Raniwala about entrepreneurship, empowerment and building an empire that has a cult global following

- Praachi Raniwala

Tory Burch admits she loves a good quote. At the welcome dinner for the launch of the T-Monogram pop-up in Singapore, where we met her this April, she borrows from her favourite poem Ithaca, with its opening lines, ‘As you set out for Ithaca / hope that your journey is a long one / full of adventure, full of discovery.’ During a talk at a design school the next day, she quotes her mother: “You can never learn anything with your mouth open.” The American designer has a few quotable quotes of her own too. “Doing good is good for business,” she says while explaining the raison d’être of the Tory Burch Foundation or that, “The smartest people are the ones who know what they don’t know,” as she expounds the merits of cultivating mentors and a strong team.

Burch has gone on to build one of America’s most successful fashion and lifestyle companies and was even declared the second youngest self-made female billionaire in America by Forbes in 2013. Her journey began in 2004 when she launched her eponymous brand—one with an unwavering cult following around the world, including India—from the kitchen table of her Upper East Side apartment while juggling the role of a stay-at-home mother. She did all this without formal design or business education, though her previous stints at Vera Wang, Ralph Lauren and Loewe held her in good stead.