I’m no Marie Antoinette, says Stiletto Queen cleared of stealing her own shoes
Former Jimmy Choo boss hits back after court triumph
HIGH fashion is known for its catfights – but this was more of a bare-knuckle brawl.
Tamara Mellon, the glamorous socialite behind the Jimmy Choo success story, went toe-to-toe in court with a trio of investors who had backed her new fashion venture – and won. Now Ms Mellon has hit back at the businessmen who accused her of using the company – Tamara Mellon Brand – as a personal cashpoint and said: ‘I’m no Marie Antoinette.’
The men claimed Ms Mellon had spent lavishly and took €91,000 worth of the firm’s clothes and shoes for herself and her daughter, despite poor results that threatened their €810m investment.
But on Friday, Ms Mellon emerged triumphant when an American judge applauded her ‘spirit and sacrifice’ in attempting to keep her venture afloat. Yesterday, in an exclusive interview with the Mail on Sunday, Ms Mellon declared: ‘Now I can go back to doing what I do best – making beautiful shoes.’
She accused her backers of ‘misogynistic bullying’ and of failing to understand the fickle world of high fashion, adding witheringly: ‘They don’t know a stiletto from a Cornetto.’ Ms Mellon had invoked a so-called Chapter 11 agreement under US bankruptcy laws – a standard corporate tool that enables a business to wipe out its debts and start afresh.
But three of TMB’s British backers – Carphone Warehouse founder David Ross, former Tory Party treasurer Michael Spencer, and Jonathan Marland, a former trade minister – accused Ms Mellon of ‘waste and abuse’ and of using company funds to support her lavish lifestyle. They claimed in court her excesses included a $17m New York apartment, private jets and holidays in St Barts.
But after her court triumph, Ms Mellon said: ‘These are people who should never be in a creative industry because they don’t understand the creative process.
‘A start-up needs investors who are going to nurture it, and support you if things go wrong. My problem is I brought in people who don’t understand the industry.
‘They threw everything at me – so many distasteful and shameful things – but the truth won out.’
In 2011, Ms Mellon made €110m from the sale of shoes business Jimmy Choo, whose fans included Kate Winslet and Sex And The City’s Sarah Jessica Parker.
She went on to create TMB with the help of investors and claims she did everything she could to avoid the UK backers losing their investment, even offering a deal where she would pay them back once her restructured company hit certain financial targets. Her offers were rejected by the business trio, she claims, and the two sides found themselves at odds in a bankruptcy courtroom in Wilmington, Delaware, where the judge ruled that under Ms Mellon’s ‘simple and straightforward’ plan TMB seemed to have ‘a bright future’.
Ms Mellon is adamant that all the perks listed in court were justified, adding: ‘I would be pretty stupid if I wore another designer’s clothes. But the value of the clothes they accused me of taking was a retail number, not the cost of goods. And it was a number the chief financial officer had forecasted in the budget, not that I’d actually taken.’
She added: ‘I felt there was some misogynistic bullying. I was on the phone to one man and he said: “Well, run along and make your pretty little shoes.” They wanted to destroy me and my reputation. It was public bullying.’
Now she wants to pour her energies into her new shoes and handbags online company: ‘I’m going back to what I know best – affordable luxury,’ she says.
Under the restructuring, TMB will receive an injection of €10m from New Enterprise Associates, a Silicon Valley investment firm.
‘They work with start-ups and have a tech mentality,’ said Ms Mellon, who is adamant all small creditors will be paid in full.
‘The judge thought the objectors’ claims were a disgrace,’ she added. ‘I would issue a warning to anyone trying to start a business: if it doesn’t go as planned, as many start-ups don’t, then beware the wrong type of investors as they will ditch you and start to attack rather than help.’
A spokesman for Mr Marland and Mr Spencer said: ‘It is sad Tamara Mellon chose to make these allegations, which are untrue. The real issue is that as a group we backed Tamara to launch her new business venture and, when it hit difficulties, we felt she had a duty to protect the interests of all her shareholders and creditors.
‘We are disappointed that her behaviour and the poor governance and commercial performance of her business forced us to attempt to defend our position.
‘We hope her new investors will fare better than we did.’
‘These men don’t know a stiletto from a Cornetto’