Jimmy Choo: How a Shoemaker’s Dream Found Its Fragrance

“It has always been my vision to fully accessorise the woman and fragrance is an integral part of the modern wardrobe.”
(It has always been my vision to dress women with every kind of accessory. Fragrance is an essential element of the modern wardrobe.)

— Tamara Mellon, Jimmy Choo co-founder and then president

Basic Information
The Founders and the Origins of the Brand
What Defines the Brand
The Fragrance Lineup
1. The Women’s Line
2. The Men’s Line
By the Way…

Basic Information

Founded: 1996 (co-founded by Jimmy Choo and Tamara Mellon)

Fragrance business launched: 2011 (under a licensing agreement with Interparfums)

Official website: https://www.jimmychoo.com

“ジミーチュウ” is the katakana spelling based on the English pronunciation of Jimmy Choo. In Japanese, “Choo” is commonly written “チュウ”.

The Founders and the Origins of the Brand

A Boy in Malaysia Stitches Shoes

Jimmy Choo, whose full name is Jimmy Choo Yeang Keat, was born on November 15, 1948, on the Malaysian island of Penang, then under British rule. His family was of Hakka Chinese descent, and his father was also a shoemaker. Young Jimmy spent time in his father’s workshop from an early age, and at eleven he stitched a pair of leather slippers for his mother entirely from scratch.

His surname was originally spelled “Chow,” but was mistakenly recorded as “Choo” on his birth certificate. The error that would later become a global brand name has remained part of his name ever since.

Choo himself has said of his father:

“My parents were shoemakers and I have followed my father’s lead. He inspired me.” (My parents were shoemakers, and I followed in my father’s footsteps. He inspired me.)

— Jimmy Choo

To London, and Then Independence

In 1982, Choo left Malaysia to enroll at Cordwainers Technical College in Hackney, London, now part of the London College of Fashion. After graduating, he also gained experience at a design company. Sources differ on his graduation year, with records giving both 1983 and 1984. Choosing to remain in London rather than return to Malaysia, Choo eventually began moving toward setting up on his own.

In 1986, he established a small workshop on the site of the former Metropolitan Hospital on Kingsland Road in East London. While also selling shoes at local markets, he began to make a name for himself among bespoke clients.

Eight Pages in Vogue, Then Princess Diana

The turning point came at London Fashion Week in 1988. A Vogue editor noticed Choo’s work, leading to a major eight-page feature. The coverage immediately raised his profile, orders surged, and his days became a race to keep up with demand.

Then, in the early 1990s, came a fateful encounter with Princess Diana.

“Choo first met Diana in 1991 when he was summoned to Kensington Palace by the princess after his name came across in the Press. ‘I was so excited I could not sleep the whole night. In fact I was so scared of oversleeping that I practically stay awaked.’”
(Choo first met Princess Diana in 1991, when she invited him to Kensington Palace after learning his name in the press. “I was so excited that I could not sleep that night. I was afraid of oversleeping, so I stayed awake almost the entire time.”)

— Jimmy Choo

Choo, who described his excitement on the night of the invitation to Kensington Palace in these words, went on to make shoes that Diana wore at almost every official occasion. Her patronage became a decisive force in elevating the brand’s standing.

Meeting Tamara Mellon: The Birth of the Brand

As Choo’s reputation grew, a woman began visiting his workshop frequently: Tamara Mellon, a fashion assistant at British Vogue. Mellon is said to have asked Jimmy to change the colors of his shoes and make her own requested modifications.

After leaving Vogue, Mellon approached Choo in 1995 with a proposal: “Let’s launch a luxury ready-made line together.” Mellon’s father, Tom Yeardye, invested £150,000 in exchange for a 50 percent stake. In May 1996, Jimmy Choo Ltd. was formally established. Mellon became president and her father chairman, with Mellon herself at the center of the brand’s vision and business operations.

The brand’s first store opened that autumn on Motcomb Street in London. Hannah Colman joined as one of its earliest employees and managed the store. Before long, another young woman would also play an important role: Sandra Choi, the niece of Choo’s wife. She had been involved in Choo’s private workshop since 1989 and, when the brand was established in 1996, became one of its founding directors, responsible for designing the collections.

Sex and the City and the Leap to a Global Brand

On July 5, 1998, Jimmy Choo was first mentioned in the fifth episode of the HBO series Sex and the City. This helped bring the brand to a broad public and provided an incentive to accelerate its expansion in the United States. That November, its first two US stores opened simultaneously, one in New York’s Olympic Tower and the other in Los Angeles.

For the 1999 Academy Awards, Mellon and Sandra Choi set up in a Los Angeles hotel room, redyeing and fitting Jimmy Choo shoes to match the dresses of actresses attending the ceremony. This pioneering red-carpet strategy is widely known as an early example of celebrity-driven marketing.

In 2001, Jimmy Choo himself sold his 50 percent stake and left the company, prioritizing craftsmanship over expanding the scale of the collections. Although the statement has not been verified, accounts on Wikipedia and elsewhere attribute this remark to him: “I love couture and its creativity. I leave ready-made shoes to my partner and the team.”

The brand continued to grow under Tamara Mellon’s leadership. By the time she departed in 2011, some sources put its global store count at 145 or more and its value at over US$1 billion.

In 2017, Michael Kors Holdings, now Capri Holdings, acquired the company for approximately US$1.35 billion. It is currently operated within that group.

What Defines the Brand

The Philosophy of Fragrance: Scent Is an Accessory, Too

Jimmy Choo’s move into fragrance had a clear vision behind it. Co-founder Tamara Mellon wanted to realize her longstanding dream of fully accessorizing women through fragrance, following shoes and bags. With this aim, the company signed a twelve-year worldwide licensing agreement with Interparfums SA on October 5, 2009, effective January 1, 2010.

At the fragrance launch, Mellon said:

“Fragrance gives a woman identity. When a woman comes into the room, you might recognise her by her smell. Or if she leaves her scarf behind and you pick it up, you smell her.”
(Fragrance gives a woman an identity. When she enters a room, you may recognize her by her scent. If you pick up a scarf she has left behind, her fragrance is there, too.)

— Tamara Mellon

This philosophy, which sees fragrance not simply as a product but as an expression of a woman’s very identity, is strongly reflected in the concepts behind each perfume.

Creative director Sandra Choi shares a similar philosophy. At the launch of the men’s fragrance Jimmy Choo Man, she said:

“I see fragrance as another accessory; I wanted to create something that would be an object of desire for the Jimmy Choo Man enhancing his independent spirit and complementing his effortless sense of style.”
(I see fragrance as another accessory. I wanted to create something that men who wear Jimmy Choo Man would desire, something that enhances their independent spirit and complements their effortless style.)

— Sandra Choi, creative director

Bottles and Packaging: Bringing the Aesthetics of Shoes to Perfume

Jimmy Choo fragrance bottles are all designed to have the presence of jewelry. The first bottle, which marked the brand’s fragrance debut, was a faceted cocoon shape inspired by the colors and sparkle of Venetian Murano glass, designed to envelop the amber-colored perfume. A black cubic cap edged in silver finishes the top, adding a graphic modernity.

The outer box carries a snakeskin print. Snakeskin is a signature material also found in Jimmy Choo’s shoes and accessories, consistently used as a motif symbolizing exotic luxury.

The commitment to packaging can also be expressed in numbers. The pale-pink packaging for the women’s fragrance Jimmy Choo L’Eau, launched in summer 2017, looks simple at first glance but actually requires twelve finishing stages. These layer blind-embossed snakeskin texture, soft-touch film lamination, matte varnish, and foil embossing with silver and holographic films.

For the men’s fragrance Jimmy Choo Man, a rectangular bottle inspired by an antique hip flask, a portable vessel for spirits, features metallic detailing and a leather-effect cap. The I Want Choo series, by contrast, creates feminine glamour with a gold hammered jewel-effect cap and the JC monogram logo.

A Commitment to Perfumers

Jimmy Choo is also well known for working with leading perfumers. Its first fragrance was created by Olivier Polge, a native of Grasse, the perfumery center in southern France, and the son of legendary perfumer Jacques Polge. Polge, who would later become Chanel’s in-house perfumer, described his creation for Jimmy Choo as “feminine and empowering, with a great deal of sensuality.”

Anne Flipo has subsequently been a central perfumer for many of the house’s fragrances, including Illicit, Jimmy Choo Man, and Man Extreme. Nathalie Lorson was commissioned for Rose Passion.

The Fragrance Lineup

Having already released at least thirty-six scents by 2021, Jimmy Choo fragrances are broadly divided into women’s and men’s lines.

The Women’s Line

Jimmy Choo Eau de Parfum (2011)
The brand’s first fragrance. A fruity chypre moving from green top notes to a heart of tiger orchid and a base of sweet toffee and Indonesian patchouli. Created by Olivier Polge.

Blossom (2015)
A bright floral that seems to celebrate the arrival of spring, with top notes of citrus and red berries, a heart of sweet pea and rose, and a base of white musk and sandalwood. Its faceted bottle is colored in a vivid pink gradient.

Illicit (2015)
True to its name, meaning forbidden, this is a provocative yet delectable fragrance. Created by Anne Flipo, it moves from top notes of ginger and bitter orange to a heart of rose and jasmine sambac, then a base of honey amber and sandalwood. Its multifaceted bottle is inspired by Art Deco crystal glass. Sandra Choi has also publicly described it as a scent she genuinely likes.

I Want Choo (2021; some sources date its announcement and partial rollout to 2020)
An amber floral composed of mandarin juice and velvet peach at the top, red spider lily and jasmine sambac at the heart, and vanilla and benzoin at the base. Its gold jewel-effect cap and JC emblem are distinctive. Variations including Forever, Le Parfum, and With Love have followed, making it one of the brand’s signature series.

Rose Passion (2023)
Created by perfumer Nathalie Lorson with the sparkling coastline of the Côte d’Azur in mind. This floral moves from coconut water and frangipani at the top to orchid and jasmine in the heart, followed by sandalwood and vanilla at the base. Its faceted bottle, inspired by Murano glass, features a fuchsia gradient.

The Men’s Line

Jimmy Choo Man (2014)
The brand’s first fragrance for men. An aromatic woody scent with top notes of lavender and mandarin, a heart of pink pepper, geranium, and pineapple leaf, and a base of suede and patchouli. Created by Anne Flipo. Flankers including Man Intense and Man Aqua have since followed, making it a pillar of the men’s fragrance range.

Man Extreme (announced in 2024, rolled out in 2025)
A new creation featuring red thyme oil as a distinctive ingredient, developed by Anne Flipo in collaboration with Tanguy Guesnet. Its bottle is also striking, with a scarlet lacquer finish and a leather-effect cap with a red print.

By the Way…

The Birth of the Name Jimmy Choo
Jimmy Choo’s surname was originally spelled “Chow,” but was mistakenly written as “Choo” on his birth certificate. The mistake that became a global brand name has remained part of his name to this day.

The Brand as a Cultural Symbol
The scene in the first episode of Sex and the City’s third season (2000), in which Carrie Bradshaw loses a shoe while running for the Staten Island Ferry and cries “I lost my Choo!” is exceptionally famous. The brand subsequently appeared in films and television shows including The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and House of Cards, establishing Jimmy Choo as part of fashion culture.

The Vogue Connection
For both Tamara Mellon, who created the brand, and Jimmy Choo, who gave it his name, contact with Vogue transformed their careers. For Choo, the starting point was the eight-page feature in 1988; for Mellon, her editorial experience was the source of the sensibility that defined the Jimmy Choo woman.

References