Tory Burch on Finding Purpose in Female Empowerment

The Business of Fashion Podcast

The Business of Fashion

Fashion & Beauty, Business, Arts

4.6 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2020

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The American designer discusses the power of many businesses to be advocates for change.

The last few years have offered Tory Burch, founder of her namesake womenswear label, time to focus less on business and more on design, particularly since her husband Pierre-Yves Roussel took on the role of chief executive in 2018. Now, the pandemic is giving her even more time to focus on perfecting product, a rare silver lining of an otherwise challenging situation. In the latest episode of the BoF Podcast, BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks speaks with Burch about her activist-focused approach to business and how the last 10 months have shaped her fashion label.

Restriction is a crucial component of creativity. To Burch, the travel restrictions and social distancing measures have opened new avenues of creativity, fostering agility and resourcefulness. “One thing that’s happened because of lockdown is it makes you stand still,” said Burch. “To be able to be in one place has been really transformative on many levels.”
Burch emphasises that what constitutes luxury needs to be reconsidered. “I really believe luxury isn’t about a price point, and I think that’s relatable particularly today,” she said. “How do you design beautiful things that are timeless and that will last? That’s what I’ve been thinking about,” she said, adding that having time to spend is the ultimate luxury.
Through the Tory Burch Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to advancing women’s empowerment, Burch is finding new avenues through which to support women and help them weather the coronavirus crisis. “Its horrendous for women right now,” said Burch. “They are taking care of children at a much higher rate than men. We have had to help many women figure out how to take out PPP loans… We had to pivot to really be a resource for women.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From sustainability, I'm very careful talking about it externally because for me, it's so important to have real things to talk about and it not just be a marketing term.
0:13.0	So what is luxury? If it's not about a price point.
0:16.0	I look at things in terms of style and this idea of how things make you feel, emotion, and
0:24.6	there's nothing better when I hear that our clothes make women feel confident.
0:29.2	That's a luxury to me.
0:35.6	Hi, this is Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the Business of Fashion, and welcome to the BOP podcast.
0:41.2	This week, our editor-at-large Tim Blank sits down with the designer Tori Birch, who's been using her time during the pandemic to focus less on business and more on design, particularly since her husband, Pierre
0:53.2	Boussel, took on the role of chief
0:55.0	executive back in 2018. The pandemic is giving Tori more time to focus on perfecting product,
1:01.3	which she tells Tim is a rare silver lining in an otherwise challenging situation.
1:07.0	Here's Tori Birch, Inside Fashion.
1:15.9	Thank you. Here's Tori Birch inside fashion. Today I am talking to Tori Birch and
1:20.0	you know we've all been in lockdown not well in London we're in lockdown again. But Tori has been in, you know,
1:32.8	in the same situation as all of us. Now, I'm very curious as to where you have spent this time,
1:39.2	where you have spent these Groundhog days. It is Groundhog Day. Hi, Tim. Hi, Torrey. Well, in March, I came with a small
1:48.6	little suitcase thinking I was coming for the weekend to quarantine or at least a week. And I've been
1:57.1	mostly in Long Island in Southampton, but from March until June out here,
2:03.4	then now I go into the city three days a week, which has been great.
2:08.4	How did you find the whole experience?
2:11.9	I'm talking to designers.
2:13.8	It's such an interesting thing how many of them have said to me that they never realized how restriction was so inspiring.
2:21.3	And I'm curious to know, to find out what your experience might have been with some.
	...

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