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

Contents

Basic Information
The Founders and the Origins of the Brand
What Defines the Brand
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.

Choo also made shoes for Princess Diana. In a 2024 interview, he recalled bringing a large case to Kensington Palace and sitting on the floor with her while she tried the shoes. Initially he arranged visits through palace staff; later, Diana contacted him directly.

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, Choo sold his 50 percent stake and left the company. In contemporary reporting, he explained that the change would allow him to concentrate on couture and devote more time to educational and charitable activities.

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 range includes women’s fragrances descended from the original, namesake perfume; I Want Choo, with its sense of a night out; the men’s Man line; and the Seduction Collection, which brings fragrance and makeup together.

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.

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.

I Want Choo

I Want Choo evokes a woman who enjoys the night, loves to dance, and feels confident in what she wears. Its combination of fruit, flowers, and sweetness belongs to the same world as Jimmy Choo’s party dressing and eveningwear.

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.

The original fragrance was created by Sonia Constant, Antoine Maisondieu, and Louise Turner. Around the image of red spider lily, they brought together the soft fruitiness of peach, jasmine, and the warmth of vanilla.

I Want Choo Forever (2022) was created by Sonia Constant and Louise Turner. Rose is paired with pink pepper and bitter almond, with a black cherry liqueur accord at the center. Jasmine and vetiver lead into moss, vanilla, and tonka bean, giving the fruit a darker richness than the peach of the original.

For I Want Choo Le Parfum (2024), Marie Salamagne and Amandine Clerc-Marie combined an opening of pear, blackberry, and gardenia with jasmine, patchouli, sandalwood, and a praline accord. White flowers, woods, and confectionery sweetness give it a character built from a different combination of materials, rather than simply a stronger version of the original.

I Want Choo With Love (2025) celebrates different forms of love, from friendship to self-confidence. Raspberry and orange blossom lead into rose, hibiscus, and freesia, wrapped in vanilla, sandalwood, and musk. It carries forward the line’s glamour while bringing flowers and gentle warmth to the fore.

The Seduction Collection

Introduced in 2020, the Seduction Collection brings fragrance and makeup together. Where I Want Choo develops variations from a single perfume, this collection gives six ingredients their own fragrances: iris, tuberose, rose, vanilla, amber, and oud.

The idea was to extend red-carpet dressing into scent and makeup. Faceted glass catches the light, while gold details echo the embellishments of the brand’s shoes and bags. Python patterns and the JC monogram also appear on the lipsticks, presenting fragrance as part of a complete look.

Iris Crush pairs powdery iris with bright red fruit. The lipsticks at launch were also lightly scented with it, connecting perfume and makeup through a shared fragrance.

Radiant Tuberose presents tuberose as a bouquet of white flowers, with neroli, jasmine, and white musk. Tempting Rose adds raspberry and lychee to the impression of a freshly cut rose. The first emphasizes the fullness of white flowers; the second, the light, juicy freshness of rose.

Vanilla Love combines vanilla, amber, and patchouli for a creamy warmth. Amber Kiss brings together impressions of ripe citrus and honeyed warmth. I Want Oud softens a deep woody outline with rose. Sweet warmth and the depth of wood take different roles across these three fragrances.

The Men’s Line: Man

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 Aqua (2022) turns the structure of a classic fougère toward the smell of the sea. Cardamom and grapefruit meet a marine accord and clary sage, followed by patchouli and an impression of salted moss. This woody marine direction suggests a sea breeze, distinct from the suede and fruit of the original Man.

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.

For Man Extreme, Anne Flipo took the color red as her starting point. Seeking to translate its different shades into scent, she focused on red thyme’s combination of heat and freshness. Co-perfumer Tanguy Guesnet sought to modernize the classic fougère through the warmth of tonka bean and amber woods. The red bottle thus reflects the idea behind the fragrance itself.

Man Parfum is the first parfum in the line. An ambery fougère with bergamot, lavender, and benzoin as its principal notes, it centers on lavender and resinous warmth, rather than Aqua’s marine freshness or Extreme’s red spices.

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