TORY DOES BEAUTY
Fashion designer and business mogul Tory Burch translates her brand of easy, accessible luxury into a beauty line. Moh Shuying reports.
Fashion designer Tory Burch expands her brand of accessible luxury to beauty.
In less than a decade, Tory Burch has managed to build a multi-billion-dollar fashion and lifestyle empire based on, well, herself. Her eponymous brand is now carried in more than 1,000 stores in over 50 countries.
The 47-year-old entrepreneur was even named one of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women of 2013 by Forbes, putting her in the same league as luminaries such as US First Lady Michelle Obama, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and media queen Oprah Winfrey. This is especially impressive when you consider that her first collection was born in the kitchen of her Upper East Side apartment in New York.
Her line of preppy-bohemian luxe is a particular favourite of socialites and career women across the globe. And it owes its success to two factors: Burch’s own charisma and her ability to make women want to be (and dress) like her, and the flattering yet fuss-free cut of her clothes.
Her easy, accessible luxury translates into everything she makes, from her popular Reva ballet flats to her patterned shift dresses. And she brings that sensibility to her new beauty line, available at Robinsons Orchard. “Women today are incredibly busy,” Burch says in an e-mail interview. “We are all looking for a beauty routine that helps us feel great, but doesn’t take a lot of time.”
The Tory Burch Beauty collection is refreshingly simple. It consists of a lipstick, a lip and cheek tint, a bronzer and a face brush, all of which are must-haves for her. “I wanted to launch with just the essentials, products that help women look and feel their best with minimum effort,” she says.
As with her fashion and lifestyle endeavours, she uses herself as a template. “My approach to beauty is ‘less is more’ and my daily routine is minimal: blush and bronzer for a healthy glow and lip colour in my favourite pink-nude shade.” That signature colour is in the Lip Color in Pas Du Tout, while the Bronzer & Blush in Divine has tints of pink, gold and ivory to create the healthy, sun-kissed glow she favours.
Burch has also often credited her parents – dad was a paper-cup heir, mum is a former actress – for her style and taste, and her first-ever fragrance is a nod to them. “The EDP is anchored by vetiver, which was my father’s favourite scent. It’s traditionally a masculine fragrance, but it crosses over to women’s fragrance well,” she says.
The Tory Burch Eau de Parfum, which she describes as “a balance of femininity and tomboy”, is a fruity-floral with notes of crisp grapefruit, citrusy mandarin, peony and tuberose grounded with earthy vetiver and warm sandalwood, so it’s more sophisticated than girlie.
While the scent is inspired by her father, the bottle’s design is influenced by her mother’s bedroom vanity and her collection of classic perfume bottles and atomisers.
For women who prefer a subtler scent, Burch recommends her body collection, which has the same fragrance as the parfum, but in a lighter form. The collection – which consists of a cream, lotion, shower gel and scented candle – are presented in blush-coloured bottles and tubs, accented with her signature gold-toned cap and “T” medallion logo.
The line stays true to Burch’s aesthetic and the DNA of her brand. “It’s similar in spirit to our ready-to-wear and accessories – sophisticated but down-to-earth, a balance of classic and modern. There isn’t one woman who epitomises our brand. We’re about women of all ages and personal styles.”