Tamara Mellon Threatens Jimmy Choo With Legal Action

Tamara Mellon and Jimmy Choo’s corporate separation is not going well, with reports that their rival shoe companies are ?at war?. Mellon is famous for co-founding the iconic shoe company and left in 2011 with a fortune some estimate is worth $135 million.

In recent years she has moved on, and set up her own eponymous line in 2013. However, things aren’t going so swell in shoe empire building for the businesswoman. She is alleging that her former company is practicing underhand tactics in a bid to make sure her new venture is not a success. Page Six reports that legal proceedings are on the horizon over Mellon’s inability to work with certain shoemakers in Florence. Mellon alleges that the block on her collaborating with these luxury artisans is down to the Jimmy Choo company itself, Choo himself left in 2001, approaching shoemakers and asking them not to work with her if they want to work with him.

Mellon has apparently sent Jimmy Choo a letter citing antitrust law that operates in the EU and saying that Choo’s interference is against accepted practice. She says that her business, which despite selling in some of the world’s major department stores, is being held back from projected expansion as a result.

Mellon’s career has inspired many women in the past two decades. She started out in PR before making her way to accessories editor at Vogue. It was through this role she met Jimmy Choo, a shoemaker, and pitched the idea of a business to him, which they started in 1996. What happened next was one of the fashion success stories of the noughties, which she wrote about in her memoir slash career manual in 2013, In My Shoes. Her current label has been seen on stars such as Kylie Jenner and Khloe Kardashian.

As seen on Page Six