The Towering World of Jimmy Choo by Lauren Goldstein Crowe and Sagra Maceira de RosenPublished by Bloomsbury USA
Rating: 3 stars
This book is officially released today.
The Towering World of Jimmy Choo follows the establishment of Jimmy Choo as a modern luxury brand from its humble beginnings and one man's vision. This book provides an insider's look into Tamara Mellon's life and how she created the Jimmy Choo empire.
Although I don't own any Jimmy Choo shoes (although that would be nice), I was very intrigued by the book's subject matter and interested in learning about Jimmy Choo, the man behind the shoes that have become so popular in recent years and that I've heard referred to many times on screen, such as in Sex and the City. However, I was a little disappointed to see that most of the book does not focus on Jimmy Choo at all, but rather on Tamara Mellon. There are many chapters dedicated to details about her upbringing, her love life, and her family that have nothing to do with the Jimmy Choo brand.
Relatively early on in the parternship between Jimmy Choo's designs and Tamara Mellon's business savvy, they had a falling out with irreconcilable differences. Unfortunately, Jimmy Choo's side of the story seems to be missing from the book. I would have liked to see more information about Jimmy Choo and especially greater insight into his experiences and thoughts regarding all that has transpired.
The idea of a book combining business with culture, more specifically fashion, is wonderful but I didn't feel that it was executed as well as it could have been. There was a lot of focus on very specific details of the business angle and since this book is intended for the general public, some of that business talk seemed a little superfluous and complicated. Because of this, I preferred reading about the cultural aspect but again much of that was clouded over with information about Tamara Mellon.
Having said all that, there were many parts of the book that I did enjoy reading, such as the Oscars behind-the-scenes information. I think the main issue for me what that much of the book's contents wasn't what I expected. This book had a lot of potential that wasn't fully achieved in my opinion, however, it still does make for an interesting read if you want to learn all about Tamara Mellon and just how she made the Jimmy Choo brand what it is today.
BIG THANKS to Bloomsbury USA for my review copy.
5 comments:
That's too bad. I wonder why the book was so unbalanced? To not talk about the actual namesake/designer f the shoes seems to be an odd choice.
Darn, I was hoping this one would be great.
The reason why Mr Jimmy Choo is not as present in the book is because this is abook about the Jimmy Choo brand, rather than about Mr Jimmy Choo. He has not been involved with the development of the brand. He sold a stake in the company to Tamara and her family in 1996 when the company was actually created and just a few years later in 2001 he sold his remaining 50% stake (including the brand name, Jimmy Choo) to a private equity company (Equinox). in 2001 the company was actually quite small, with sales of £10 million or so, compared with the sales today of £110 million! Therefore , I dont think the book is unbalanced at all, as mr choo was only around for a short period and afterwards he retired. I hear it is a great read!
Thanks for the information Anonymous. All I was saying was that I personally would have liked to have seen more content about Jimmy Choo, the man, since he is the company's namesake afterall. Because much of the book was one-sided and Mr. Choo was never properly represented, it seemed unbalanced to me but as with any book review, this is just my opinion. I hope that clears things up!
I tried very hard to read this book and it is still staring at me from my TBR pile (making me a bit sad), but I just could not read more than a page or two at a time and found it quite boring. Much ado about nothing.
Post a Comment