Table of Biography
Tamara Mellon is a well-known British fashion entrepreneur. Moreover, Tamara Mellon co-founded the luxury footwear brand, Jimmy Choo.
Early Life
Tamara Mellon opened her eyes to the world on the 7th of July 1967, in London, England. She is 55 years old as of 2022 and holds British nationality. In addition, she has a birth sign of Cancer and belongs to Christianity. Similarly, she belongs to the British ethnicity.
Tamara Mellon is the daughter of Tom Yeardye (father) and Ann Davis Yeardye (mother). Her father is a stunt double for Rock Hudson, and her mother is a former Chanel model by profession.
Moreover, she is the eldest of three siblings and her siblings’ names are unknown at the moment. Her family moved to Beverly Hills, California, in a home next door to Nancy Sinatra in the year 1976. Mellon alternated summers between California and the UK.
Education
Talking about her academic career, she studied at two independent girls’ schools in Berkshire—Marist School and Heathfield St Mary’s School—before finishing school in Switzerland at the now-defunct Institut Alpin Videmanette.
Professional Career
Tamara Mellon began her professional career at Phyllis Walters Public Relations, Mirabella, and in 1991 was employed as an accessories editor and assistant to Sarajane Hoare at British Vogue.
In addition, she approached bespoke shoemaker Mr. Jimmy Choo with the idea of launching a ready-to-wear shoe firm. Being a co-founder of the Jimmy Choo Company, she secured funding from her father for the creation of her business and sourced factories in Italy.
The woman set up an office in Italy to handle production, quality control, and shipping. Moreover, the company had over 100 wholesale clients, such as Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Bergdorf Goodman by the year 2001. Meanwhile, the collections accounted for over 50% of the production of several of these factories.
In Motcomb Street in London, the first Jimmy Choo store was opened. Quickly, it was also followed up by outlets in New York, Las Vegas, and Beverly Hills. Equinox Luxury Holdings Ltd partnered up with Jimmy Choo Ltd in the year 2001 and after acquiring Mr. Choo’s shares, their Chief Executive, Robert Bensoussan became CEO of Jimmy Choo Ltd and decided to introduce handbags and small leather goods collections.
Moreover, the company was valued at £101 million by the year 2004. Hicks Muse acquired a major share of the company and Mellon made an estimated £85 million from the eventual sale of the company in 2011.
She appeared on the Sunday Times Rich List in the year 2007, where she was ranked as the 751st richest person in the UK with her wealth estimated at £99 million. In the UK, she was ranked as the 64th richest woman. In the year 2013, she stated how her eponymous luxury shoe brand would not buy from companies that lacked female employees in executive roles.
Difficulties
She had to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code for her shoe and apparel brand in December 2015. It was discovered that her assets were worth between $1 million and $10 million, which was similar to the amount she owed to 199 creditors. NEA, an American private equity firm, bailed her out with a $10 million cash injection.
In January 2016, she was subjected to an objection filed by former backers, who accused Tamara and her fiance of planning to commit fraud financiers. The objection also included allegations of mismanagement and abuse of the company, including the use of payroll to hire a life coach and the spending of $100,000 on Met Gala tickets. The US Department of Justice responded with another formal objection to the accusation.
In the year September 2016, she filed a lawsuit against Jimmy Choo allegedly disallowing her from using luxury shoemakers in Florence, Italy to produce her line.
Public and Political activities
She is also a part of the New Enterprise Council, a group of entrepreneurs who are in charge of advising the Conservative Party on business policies. In November 2010, she was named a “globe trade envoy for Britain” by the British Government for promoting the country’s booming fashion industry overseas.
Meanwhile, she served on the Board of Directors for Revlon since 2008 and is also a patron of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Awards
Caption: Tamara Mellon at the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund Awards (Source: POPSUGAR)
Tamara Mellon was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours for services to the fashion industry. She received the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Pioneer Award in recognition of her achievements in fashion in the year 2014.
Tamara Mellon – Net Worth 2023
Tamara Mellon is a British entrepreneur and businesswoman who has a net worth of $300 million as of 2022. Mainly, she earned her net worth by being the co-founder of the luxury brand Jimmy Choo.
Relationship Status
Tamara Mellon has been dating entertainment/technology executive Michael Ovitz in recent years. Moreover, the couple announced their engagement in the year 2015. During that time, Michael still was married to his first wife Linda.
Caption: Tamara Mellon with her fiancé, Michael Ovitz (Source: Zimbio)
In the past, she married banking heir Matthew Mellon. They met while both in recovery from addiction at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. Moreover, they married on a grand estate in England in 1999. Hugh Grant, Elizabeth Hurley, and several other high-profile celebrities attended the wedding. In 2002, they had a daughter named Araminta. In 2005, they divorced.
Matthew Mellon, sadly, never fully recovered from his addictions and died in April 2018 at a drug rehab center. Mellon started a romantic relationship with actor Christian Slater in the year 2007 and the relationship ended two years later. In the year 2013, she published her book “In My Shoes: A Memoir.”
Body Measurements
Caption: Tamara Mellon posing for a photo (Source: Instagram)
Social Media
On her Instagram page ‘@tamaramellon’ there are over 279k followers. Likewise, there are over 19.7k followers on her Twitter page ‘@TamaraMellon’ and over 185k followers on her Facebook page.