By Michele Smith
Facebook – MicheleSmithMarketing
Meet Tory Burch, a top fashion designer and clearly an American success story.
Tory Burch, born Tory Robinson, is an American fashion designer, business woman and philanthropist. Born in Pennsylvania in 1966, the designer currently resides in New York City, and is the CEO and designer of Tory Burch LLC. After graduating college, she began her career in the city working for Zoran, a Yugoslavian designer.
Tory Burch then moved on to working for Vera Wang and Polo Ralph Lauren in an advertising capacity. In February 2004, she launched her own fashion label, TRB by Tory Burch and completely sold out of all of her inventory the first day when she opened her first store in Manhattan and when she was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, her website received over 8 million hits. Today, Tory Burch has over 190 stores worldwide.
The American designers has made several television appearances including Good Morning America, Gossip Girl, Fashion King, and was even a guest judge on the very popular Project Runway. Her styles are popular with women of all ages, and can be described as preppy-boho and preppy bohemian-luxe.
Tory Burch is also an award-winning designer earning the 2005 Rising Star Award for Best New Retail Concept by the Fashion Group International, the 2008 Accessories Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and in 2015 she earned the Humanitarian Award of the year by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Also popular with the media, Working Mother magazine recognized her as the one of the top 50 most powerful moms of 2015, and she also has consistently been recognized by Forbes list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women (as of 2015, she was ranked as number 73).
Tory Burch’s philanthropic activities clearly sets her apart as an entrepreneur and fashion designer. She currently sits on the board for the Council of Fashion Designers’ of America, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Startup America Foundation to name just a few.
From an entrepreneurial standpoint, Tory Burch launched the Tory Burch Foundation in 2009, which supports women entrepreneurs through mentoring, supporting economic empowerment of women through small business loans and education programs. The foundation hosts a contest offering women entrepreneurs the opportunity to compete for business grants, personal mentoring for one whole year, a $50,000 grant plus a $50,000 no-interest loan for their business.
Finally yet importantly, Tory Burch partnered with Bank of America, invested 10M to help women entrepreneurs have access to low interest loans and education. In turn, Bank of America increased this funding to 20M the last couple of years. Tory Burch is not only a top designer and philanthropist, but an icon for women entrepreneurs nationally and across the globe.
