Tamara Mellon sues Jimmy Choo over ‘sabotage’ that sank her firm

TAMARA Mellon, pictured, is suing her former employer Jimmy Choo amid claims the company set out to sabotage her new venture.

The shoe designer, who was awarded an OBE for her services to fashion, co-founded the multi-million-pound luxury brand in the 1990s.

But after writing a reveal-all biography In My Shoes, in which she branded Jimmy Choo’s new private equity owners as ‘vultures’, she claims her exemployer set out ‘to punish her’.

She told of how the company, which she left in 2011, had thrown a ‘wrench’ in her plans by allegedly trying to ‘boycott’ factories from producing creations by her brand Tamara Mellon.

The designer is now trying to claim millions in damages after her business declared bankruptcy. Mellon was left feeling spurned in 2011 when Swiss luxury goods group Labelux bought Jimmy Choo from private equity firm TowerBrook Capital for £500m, and she claims she was excluded from negotiations.

Jimmy Choo has said the case is ‘without merit’ adding that the allegations will be ‘vigorously contested’.

According to legal documents seen by MailOnline that were filed at the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Mellon, 49, alleges that Jimmy Choo threatened to withdraw its business from the factories that were producing both products.