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Less than a decade after launching her own label, Tory Burch C’88
is one of the most recognizable names in fashion. Through mentoring
and microloans, the Tory Burch Foundation is empowering other
women entrepreneurs to follow in her footsteps. By Kathryn Levy Feldman
FromBrand to
Model
RoleModel
Role
ON
a recent evening at Tory Burch LLC in downtown
Manhattan, the resort collection of bright, classic,
and preppy-chic clothing and accessories was not
getting much attention from the 75 women gathered in the
trademark orange-and-green showroom. In fact, the clothing
racks had been pushed to the sides of the mirrored space to
make way for 11 glass-topped tables, where the women—aged
20 to 60, and each the owner of her own small business—were
engaged in a networking forum modeled on speed dating and
organized by the Tory Burch Foundation and its micro-financing
partner, Accion.
The evening was one of about a dozen similar mentoring
events Burch’s foundation has held in locations such as New
York, Chicago, and Hawaii. Every 20 minutes, the women moved
from table to table to tap the expertise of a different mentor in
fields including (that evening) retail, hospitality, real estate,
insurance, and marketing. Burch herself circulated among the
tables, listening in on conversations and beaming.
44 NOV | DEC 2 01 2 T H E P E N N S Y LVA N I A G A Z E T T E PH O T O G R A P H B Y PAT R I C K D E MA R C H E L I E R
“I’m lucky to have had
many mentors throughout
my career,” Burch says.
T H E P E N N S Y LVA N I A G A Z E T T E NOV | DEC 2 01 2 45“For our mentoring events, we focus Certainly she has demonstrated hers. est influence,” she says. “They wore time-
on inviting business leaders from diverse Just eight years after launching her own less, elegant pieces mixed with very
fields our entrepreneurs need help with,” fashion line, she has created a global personal details. My father [the late Ira
she explains. Participants in the “Friends lifestyle-brand: Tory Burch merchandise Earl “Buddy” Robinson W’43] had his
of Tory” network include such high- is sold in more than 1,000 department jackets lined with Hermès scarves, and
powered figures as J. Crew chairman and and specialty stores as well as 80 nation- my mother always brought back incred-
CEO Millard Drexler and author and al and international stand-alone bou- ible pieces from her travels. I started
Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski. tiques. In 2008, Burch won the Council experimenting with a balance of classics
This particular evening, Cindi Leive, of Fashion Designers of America award and more eclectic pieces in college.”
editor-in-chief of Glamour magazine, and for Accessory Designer of the Year. Sales The sunflower emblem of the Tory Burch
the CEO of jeweler David Yurman, Glenn this year should exceed $800 million Foundation pays tribute to that parental
Senk, are on hand, among others. and rumors of going public have been influence—it’s based on one of the pieces
The focus is all business. Constance circulating for about a year. of jewelry Burch’s father designed for her
Sherman, whose “Hot Girl Pearls” have “She started her business at a kitchen mother, a sunflower pendant that Tory
been featured on The View television table in her apartment with kids running herself now cherishes and often wears.
show, wants to know about going global. around,” says Glenn Senk, who has also Her mother, Reva—after whom Burch’s
The owner of a teen/tween party business served as chief executive at Urban wildly popular line of ballet flats is
that operates out of a storefront contem- Outfitters and Anthropologie. “Every named—remains a mentor. Singer notes
plates marketing on a non-existent bud- good business I know starts at a kitchen that Burch is “ready at a moment’s notice
get. A jewelry designer and recent trans- table or in a garage.” On top of that, he to break into praise of her mother’s tal-
plant to New York wonders if she should adds, Burch has all the qualities of a true ents as an organizer of holiday festivities
revamp her entire line or try and market entrepreneur: she is passionate about and organic farming.”
her original designs in the city. However her vision, she is scrappy, and she works Burch attended the all-girls Agnes Irwin
useful the advice of the expert mentors, 24/7. “You can send Tory an email at 5 School in Bryn Mawr, where she was a
according to Burch the true value of the a.m. or at 11 p.m. and she answers it formidable tennis player. When it was time
sessions is that the women will learn just within a half hour,” he confides. for college, Penn was “absolutely [my] first
as much from each other. “Sadly, it’s true,” Burch admits. choice,” she says. She fondly remembers
“There is the Madeleine Albright quote Such dedication belies the Main Line- classes in art history, her major, with David
that goes, ‘There is a special place in Hell born socialite-turned-fashionista that Brownlee (currently the Frances Shapiro-
for women who do not help other women,’” Burch is often portrayed as being. Weitzenhoffer Professor and chair of the
says Glamour’s Leive. “Well, Tory’s defi- Despite speculation that she owes her graduate group in the History of Art), as
nitely not going to Hell!” success to the deep pockets of her social- well as in sociology with the late E. Digby
It wasn’t concern for her afterlife that ly prominent friends and her ex-husband, Baltzell W’39 Hon’89—and was one of the
motivated Tory Burch C’88 to decide in financier Christopher Burch, with whom founding members of the Kappa Alpha
2009 to establish her own foundation; she has three sons, the truth is that she Theta sorority.
and she wasn’t out merely to do good is extremely good at what she does. During her junior year, Burch partici-
works, either. Providing mentorship and Burch “seems to have an infallible pated in a Semester at Sea program. “I
microfinancing opportunities is “not instinct for what resonates with female traveled to 14 countries and saw a side
charity; it’s empowerment,” she told CNN consumers across class and age divides,” of poverty I’d never seen,” she says, which
Money in 2011. “It’s an investment in our says Sally Singer, editor of The New York is where her commitment to give back
collective futures.” Times Style Magazine. was inculcated. From that point on, she
Rather, it was Burch’s firsthand expe- That sixth sense is coupled with a near- says philanthropy and education were
rience of the difficulties women face in constant, focused drive to deliver new always a part of her vision.
simply having their aspirations taken goods that both expand and reinforce Not that this approach was always wel-
seriously, let alone getting financing for her consistent vision. “Tory turned her comed. Early on, one of her investors
a start-up, that led her to create a pro- unique view of the world into a busi- advised her to “never bring up philanthro-
gram specifically geared toward helping ness,” Senk elaborates. “She shared the py and business in the same sentence.”
women entrepreneurs in the US. “It’s way she lives with the world.” “Philanthropy was thought of as women
much easier for a woman in a developing doing charity benefits—very Junior League,”
country to get a microloan than it is
here,” Burch told Fast Company, when
the magazine named her to its League
of Extraordinary Women in June. “Early
on, it was just the way potential investors
T ory Robinson grew up in Valley
Forge, Pennsylvania, on a 35-acre
“gentleman’s farm” with three
brothers, Robert, James, and Leonard. A
self-professed tomboy, she credits her par-
she said in the Fast Company interview.
“But I thought—and people are now think-
ing—that business and philanthropy and
doing good really do go hand-in-hand.”
After Penn, Burch got her first job an
were a little condescending. I felt that ents with instilling the fashion sense that assistant working for the Yugolslavian fash-
from the beginning. There was a stigma has fueled her designs. ion designer Zoran—from whom, she says,
attached to being a woman in business. “My style has always been classic, but she “learned about the elements of running
I think it’s about the ambition.” I have to say my parents were my great- a small design atelier”—and followed that
46 NOV | DEC 2 01 2 T H E P E N N S Y LVA N I A G A Z E T T EParticipants at the foundation’s mentoring events get
expert advice—and learn from each other, says Burch.
with an editorial stint at Harper’s Bazaar,
where she was “exposed to some of the most
creative people in fashion.” Next she moved
into the public-relations side of the fashion
industry, working for Ralph Lauren (“where
has become legendary in the fashion
industry, the store’s inventory was sold out
by the end of its opening day.
By the end of 2012, Burch will have
opened 25 new stores, each unique to its
B rooklyn-based jewelry designer
Natasha Wozniak knows from pas-
sion and exhaustion. In 2010, after
being in business for nine years, she was
feeling the pinch of the economic downturn.
I discovered the importance of marketing neighborhood and clientele but all emanat- “There was a huge drop-off in sales, and I
and story-telling”), Vera Wang (“which was ing that same ethos. “We are opening about had used credit-card financing to get me
about to expand a brand”), and Madrid- 10 more stores in the Middle East, Asia, through,” she recalls. A Facebook post by a
based fashion house Loewe (“where I Canada, and the US this year,” she says. woman who runs a trade show at which
observed Narciso Rodriguez’s laser-sharp “Everyone on our team is also excited for Wozniak exhibited alerted her to the avail-
focus on impeccable tailoring and fit”). the launch of our fragrance in Fall 2013.” ability of microloans from Accion, the largest
In 2004, armed with these experiences— Burch’s satisfaction at the meteoric microfinance provider in the US. “She obvi-
but no formal design or business training— rise of her fashion star has been tem- ously realized that a lot of people who exhib-
Burch decided to launch her own label, pered with her self-professed difficulty it with her were hurting,” Wozniak says.
which would offer what she calls “great in “having it all.” Wozniak’s application to Accion for a
American sportswear with a more global “Starting out I faced challenges with time, loan to refinance her debt was one of the
point of view.” Her first store—at 257 resources, and most of all, work-life bal- first to be financed by the Tory Burch
Elizabeth Street in the Nolita (North of ance,” she admits. “I would put my three Foundation. Accion administers the loans,
Little Italy) neighborhood of Manhattan— sons to bed and then get on a call with our which range from $5,000 to $50,000,
both created and expressed Tory Burch, Hong Kong office until 4 a.m. It was totally while Burch provides the start-up financ-
the lifestyle, from the moment one walked exhausting, but it was worth it because I ing and ongoing mentorship opportuni-
through the now-signature orange lacquer was passionate about what I was doing.” ties. It is a partnership, says Accion CEO
doors. Burch’s stylish, classic, and—rela- Today, she makes it clear that her fam- Paul Quintero, that “kickstarts the growth
tively—affordable clothing and accessories ily is her first priority. “My boys and of women entrepreneurs. Combining the
coordinated perfectly with the mirrored [three] step-daughters come first and knowledge gained from the foundation’s
walls and the tasteful, but never trendy, everything falls into place after that,” networking and coaching events with the
NOA GRIFFEL
appointments of an upscale home. From she declares, even as she acknowledges capital quickly provided by Accion ensures
the get-go, the Tory Burch brand resonated on her blog that “balancing work and the quick implementation of ideas and
powerfully with customers. In a tale that family” remains her biggest challenge. opportunities for growth.”
T H E P E N N S Y LVA N I A G A Z E T T E NOV | DEC 2 01 2 47“We are very thoughtful about the orga- data from FIELD at the Aspen Institute, company. That was beyond generous, nizations with which we collaborate and a think-tank focusing on best practices and she has continued to make herself are aligned,” notes Tory Burch Foundation in microenterprises, shows that, of the as well as her team available to us.” Director Terri McCullough, who used to approximately 22 million self-employed All of which is music to Burch’s ears. be chief of staff and adviser to former microentrepreneurs in the US, more “I’m lucky to have had many mentors House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, where her than 10 million lack access to business throughout my career,” she says. “One focus was on policies affecting women capital—and they are predominantly of the ideas they all reinforced is that and families. The foundation has also women and minorities. it’s important to be a steadfast informa- partnered with the US State Department’s “We like to think of ourselves as bank- tion-gatherer in each job. It will ulti- African Women’s Entrepreneurship ing done differently,” notes Accion’s mately help you find the work you’re the Program; Goldman Sachs’ investment Boggiano. “Many of our clients don’t most passionate about.” programs, 10,000 Women and 10,000 qualify for traditional loans because they “Tory is deeply committed to helping Small Businesses; and the Fortune mag- may not have credit scores or because other women succeed as she had,” sec- azine/US State Department Global the amount they need is too small for onds McCullough. “In fact, the founda- Women’s Mentoring Partnership in host- large banks to consider. We take that tion is deeply integrated into the ethos ing mentoring events in New York as well extra step. We do more than just give of the company and is an important part as Morocco. The foundation also works clients a loan; we help them succeed.” of who she is and who the company is.” with the Women’s Initiative for Self- When it comes to going that extra step, In the middle of a hectic schedule of Employment, a national microenterprise the relationship between the Tory Burch fittings for her fashion show during training and funding organization. Foundation and Accion is “a match made New York’s Fall Fashion Week, Burch In fact, it was a partnership with Global in heaven,” according to Boggiano. “Tory made it a point to detail Wozniak’s suc- Philanthropy—a network for those seek- goes above and beyond with the women cess to me in an email: “With a small ing to start a foundation—that connect- who are funded by Accion.” loan from our foundation, she was able ed them to Accion. “We never wanted to Case in point: Wozniak, who gained to grow her business and website, www. get into the business of being a bank,” invaluable expertise from one of Burch’s natashajewelry.com, and is thinking says McCullough. mentoring sessions. “I was at a crossroad, about hiring employees. Her collection McCullough says that the foundation contemplating whether or not to sell is now sold online and in 16 retail loca- was funded in part by a direct contribu- directly to clients on the Internet or to tions across the US.” tion from Burch as well as net proceeds continue selling my jewelry wholesale to Aside from their corporate bottom from products specifically designed to department stores,” she recalls. “I men- lines, these women have also been deep- support it. These products, some of tioned this to Lisa Caputo, executive vice- ly influenced by Burch’s work ethic, which are designed by emerging artists president of global marketing and corpo- determination, and business acumen. “I in limited editions, can be found in rate affairs for Citigroup, who was a men- didn’t think it would be this hard even stores and online. tor that evening.” (Caputo has since moved when you have such a great mentor as According to Alejandra Boggiano, on to Travelers Insurance.) Tory,” notes Duncan. “I can’t even imag- communications manager for Accion, “She looked at me and said, ‘Why are ine what it would be like without her.” since its inception the Tory Burch Foun- you even thinking about it? Can you do “If I really needed Tory to access a per- dation has made 66 loans, averaging it tomorrow?’ She felt that I needed to son, I know she would make the connec- $7,000 each. “It doesn’t seem like a lot put my energy into working directly with tion for me,” seconds Wozniak. but it is often that little bit that makes customers, which is a less expensive way According to Boggiano, about 70 per- a difference,” she says. Interest charged to run my business because I could focus cent of the women who attend a Tory on the loans has ranged from 6 to 15.9 on a higher-end clientele. It was the last Burch Foundation mentoring event know percent and the average payback time push I needed to make the decision to about the loan program, while the rest is two years. The default rate has been get into e-commerce.” are introduced to it that evening. Many “extremely low,” says Foundation Direc- In 2010, cousins Undra Duncan and come more than once. The advice and tor McCullough. Shekima Francois received a loan from connections are invaluable at all stages There were more than 8.1 million the Tory Burch Foundation to help with of business development. The Tory Burch women-owned businesses in the US as the production of their handbag line. Foundation funds microloans to both of 2011, according to a report commis- Less than a year later, their company startups and established businesses. sioned by American Express OPEN, the (aptly named Cousin & Co.) had signed “Interacting with her and others has company’s credit card for businesses. on with a New York showroom and taught me about getting help,” Wozniak That figure represents a 50 percent received orders from Searle, a presti- continues. “Here I was trying to figure increase since 1997. Many of these gious department store in New York. it all out by myself. I realized that invest- women-owned businesses are microen- “Tory has been amazingly accessible to ing in my personal development helped terprises—meaning having fewer than us,” Duncan says. “Earlier this spring we the business develop and improved five employees and capital needs under had a one-on-one breakfast with her and everything that I do.”◆ $35,000—whose owners find it very dif- she put us in contact with her PR team Kathryn Levy Feldman LPS’09 is a freelance writer ficult to obtain financing. Similarly, as well as the head of handbags at her and frequent Gazette contributor. 48 NOV | DEC 2 01 2 T H E P E N N S Y LVA N I A G A Z E T T E
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