Tamara Mellon Slams Jimmy Choo on Morning Television

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Jenna Bush and the Today show program caught up with Tamara Mellon, former partner to Jimmy Choo and the woman who is often credited with growing the brand into a shoe empire, yesterday. Mellon is in the midst of a publicity rampage, promoting her own namesake shoe line as well as a tell-all memoir.

The story that Mellon offers Bush jr. has all the trappings of a fashion scandal tell-all: There's coke, there's yet another revival the undead Carrie Bradshaw, there's an alcoholic mother, and there's rehab, hope, redemption through shoes, etc. But the juiciest nugget of all may be her claim that Jimmy Choo, the man, never designed a shoe. She says:

The original idea was for Jimmy to design the collection, and I would run the operations of the business. But it soon became very clear that Jimmy's skill was in making shoes. He's a cobbler. [...] Not one sketch did I get from him. Not one.

See the whole, very much one-sided interview below (everyone else including Jimmy Choo offered no comment).

· Jimmy Choo's Business Partner: He Never Designed a Single Shoe [Today]
· Tamara Mellon's New Brand Is Ready for Launch [Racked]
· Ex-Jimmy Choo Owner Prepares to Launch Her Own Label [Racked]