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Tory Burch: Ambition Is Not a Dirty Word


Women are the future. I truly believe that.

Women’s empowerment has never been about the optics for us—in fact, we didn’t talk about the work of our Foundation for a long time because we didn’t want it to be perceived as marketing. Six months ago, I sent an email to our team telling them that finally, ten years after launching our Foundation, it was now time to talk externally about everything we are doing.

Women’s empowerment isn’t just a foundational principle for us, it’s something we have been financing for over a decade. To date, Tory Burch LLC has given over $20M to our Foundation. Every Tory Burch product that has been purchased over the past ten years has contributed to that number.

We also provide about $1 million a month in affordable loans for women entrepreneurs through our Capital Program in partnership with Bank of America. To date, we have distributed over $57 million to 3,500 women across the United States—from bakers to civil engineers.

A few years ago, we began to think bigger. On top of correcting the inequity on the back end, we questioned how we could combat the bias that causes inequity in the first place. It got me thinking about an instance in which I realized I had bought into my own unconscious bias.

Early in my career, a friend pointed out to me that I had shied away from the word “ambition.” It was a turning point for me.

The truth is, the word “ambition” takes on a completely different meaning when applied to a woman than when applied to a man. Women are criticized for exhibiting the very same quality men are praised for. This has to change.

Ambition creates pioneers, thinkers, innovators and leaders. We tend to associate ambition with the workplace but it’s about being ambitious in all that you do—whether that’s starting a company, running for office, or being a stay-at-home mom.

We launched our #EmbraceAmbition global initiative in 2017 to encourage women to own their power, their drive and their dreams. This is a message that is relevant to all women, from all around the world. In fact, our video reached 98% of all the world’s countries and has been viewed millions of times.

We have made progress but there is still so much that needs to be done. This is a problem we can solve, but only if we are willing to do the work and to take bold action—together. Men have to be part of this conversation if we want to create real and lasting change. Equality is not a woman’s issue. It’s not a man’s issue. It’s an issue of humanity.

Tory Burch is the executive chairman and chief creative office of Tory Burch LLC, an American lifestyle brand, and founder of the Tory Burch Foundation.



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The World Is Finally Catching Up With Tory Burch


Burch has been able to best the competition by eyeing a void (or voids) and owning it completely. “I’ve always been obsessed with the concept of reinvention and evolution, and being at the forefront of technology,” she says. “Evolution has helped us keep up with the macro environment, and also take our customer with us. We are not a designer price point, but we look through a luxury lens. We try to give our customer the best possible quality for the best possible price.”

And where Burch goes, the masses follow. A year after she launched the brand, Oprah Winfrey dubbed the newcomer with no design experience “the next big thing in fashion.” (A fashion executive turned stay-at-home mom, Burch had spent nearly four years “coming up with idea after idea of what I could do to start a business.”) Seemingly overnight her refined-prep aesthetic—an homage to her mom and a feminist take on the randy, rugby-inspired fast fashion of the era—became the new normal. “Tory appeared as if she came out of nowhere with her label that put women at the center of everything,” says Condé Nast global content adviser and Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour. “I think what Tory understands is that as you get bigger and bigger, the scale of the conversation shouldn’t change. You need to keep the sense of personal connection. And she has.”

As Burch grew the business, she also weathered her fair share of personal and professional setbacks, including a public divorce from investor Chris Burch in 2006. (The two have continued to coparent their three sons and his three daughters from a previous relationship, two of whom currently work at Tory Burch.) Then, in 2008, economic decline all but toppled traditional brick-and-mortar business models. “Our business had been on such a fast trajectory, and overnight it changed,” she says. Burch stayed nimble, leaning into e-commerce and accessory sales in lieu of outlet stores and quick-return licensing deals. She also leaned into her own temperament. “When things get frenetic, I get more focused,” she says. “And I get that from my dad. I take a step back, and I would say I’m very calm. People often check to see if I have a pulse.” She’s joking, but it’s something to consider. For Burch, one of the few women in the highest echelon of business, being inscrutable isn’t an edge—it’s a necessity. “I don’t want to act on emotion,” she says. “The word restraint is something that I always think about. And patience. We’re a patient brand. I’ve never necessarily wanted to be the biggest company. I wanted to be, obviously, the most profitable—but also the most inspiring place to work.”



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Career Advice: 7 Things Tory Burch Wants You to Know About Ambition


Encourage she has. Through the Tory Burch Foundation, the designer started the Embrace Ambition summit last year, to connect female entrepreneurs for professional development and personal growth in an honest and meaningful way. Now in its second year, the event has grown beyond a one-day gathering in New York into a week-long series in Tory Burch stores across the country. (It’s free to attend, but you have to apply for a ticket. “They had to write an essay about why they should come,” Burch says. “In the first 24 hours, we had 1,200 applicants with 1,200 essays that were heart-wrenching and beautiful and inspiring.”) The series kicks off in Philadelphia, but if you can’t make it in person, you can catch the conversation on a live stream. (There are also guidebooks, articles, and more to keep the conversation going all year.)

Founding a company, being a creative director, CEO, philanthropist, mentor, and mother doesn’t come without its bumps in the road. “I’ve been through a fair amount in 14 years,” she says. “Being a very private person, going through things in a very public way is not always easy. Protecting my family, building a business, [running a] business in 2008 when markets changed overnight, bringing a team along that believes in you—it’s not always easy.” But harnessing her ambition made things a little easier. Soak up some of her wisdom here.

Throw out any preconceptions about the word “ambition.” “In retrospect, I’ve always been a bit ambitious in various ways,” says Burch. But she never really thought of herself that way until she was called ‘ambitious’ by The New York Times. “I remember the exact moment when he [the journalist] said ‘Wow, you’re ambitious.’ And I was like, ‘Iow, that’s such a rude thing to say.’ It was the first article written on our company, and it seemed like a negative,” she recalls. A friend helped change her thinking. “She called and said, ‘You know, I love the article, but you shied away from the word ambition.’ I was a bit taken aback. But I realized that she was absolutely right. It really struck a chord and really set the trajectory for the next years to come on how I felt about the word, what it meant to me, what I felt it should mean.” The change in how people think of the word may not change overnight; it can be a process, like it was for Burch. “Over time I made this shift of when someone called me ambitious, I took it as a compliment,” she says. “I redefined my relationship with the word. It’s still something that I think about to this day, and I describe myself as ambitious. I’m proud of that.”

Burch at her Spring 2019 show during New York Fashion Week.

WWD/REX/Shutterstock

Your personal ambition might not be obvious—but that shouldn’t stop you from trying to find it. “I have always been ambitious—starting a company is not for the unambitious—but it has manifested in different ways throughout my life,” Burch says. “I started a sorority as a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania. I became an entrepreneur before entrepreneurship was talked about. And, of course, being a mom was one of my greatest ambitions. Identifying and prioritizing your ambitions can be tricky. Mine came at a crossroads when I found out I was pregnant with my third son. I had just been offered the position as president of a big fashion company, but I knew I couldn’t take the job and be the kind of mom I wanted to be to three boys under the age of four.” After a lot of thinking, she decided to jump. “It was one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” she says. “When I left, I had no idea that I would begin conceptualizing our company. Taking a step back gave me a new perspective, and a new ambition began to emerge. Ambitions evolve with time.”



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Women Reveal One Thing They Want to See Happen on TV in 2018 at the Glamour x Tory Burch Women to Watch Lunch


Look at the 2017 Emmy nominations, and you’ll notice a common theme: It’s stacked with women-centric shows, especially ones with a message. With multiple nominations for the women behind and in front of the camera on shows like The Handmaid’s Tale, Big Little Lies, Feud, Veep, Grace and Frankie, This Is Us, and Orange Is the New Black, it’s clear we’re truly in a golden age of television.

That said, while we’ve certainly made progress, there’s still work to be done. A study released just this week revealed that 68 percent of the TV shows that aired between September 2016 to May 2017 had more men than women on their casts, and female characters accounted for just 42 percent of speaking roles. The good news: There are women in Hollywood, many of them nominated for Emmys this year, who are working hard to see those numbers change.

To celebrate them—and discuss how to make even more progress on television—Glamour partnered with Tory Burch to host a luncheon at the brand’s boutique on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. Along with our editor-in-chief, Cindi Leive, co-hosts for the event included Alison Brie, America Ferrera, Natalia Dyer, Priyanka Chopra, Samira Wiley, and Shonda Rhimes.

PHOTO: Stefanie Keenan

Glamour EIC Cindi Leive and Superstore star America Ferrera share a moment at the Glamour x Tory Burch Women to Watch lunch.

Before guests were served food from Phuong Tran of Croft Alley, Leive gave a Veuve Clicquot toast to the Emmy nominees in the room—which included Felicity Huffman, Samira Wiley, Reed Morano, Lena Waithe, Wanda Sykes, Laverne Cox, and Shannon Purser. “Most of all, I want to thank all of you for making shows that feature so many great female characters,” Leive said, before adding, “And women who get to actually do things!”

Glamour x Tory Burch Women To Watch Lunch

PHOTO: Stefanie Keenan

Guests toast over floral arrangements by Joseph Free.

During the meal, the group discussed what they most want to see happen on TV next year. Master of None‘s Lena Waithe hopes to see “a black, lesbian lead character on a TV show. Hopefully, I’ll be the one writing it.” But her goals for 2018 don’t stop there: She also wants a series about a transgender person in love to show “more trans normalcy on television.”

Similarly, Laverne Cox’s wish for 2018 is to see more transgender representation—specifically, “a show starring a transgender woman created by a transgender person with transgender people writing.”

Glamour x Tory Burch Women To Watch Lunch

PHOTO: Stefanie Keenan

Laverne Cox and Lena Waithe at the Tory Burch Rodeo Drive location.

Like Waithe, Inhumans star Serinda Swan sees 2018 as a time to increase the diversity of stories being told—without treating the characters as an “other.” “I want to see more interesting, diverse characters, but I don’t want it to be something new anymore,” she explained. “In 2018, I want it to be commonplace, not [considered to be] pushing the boundaries. I just want to see the exceptional become normal and have everyone see that as well.”

Stranger Things and Riverdale star Shannon Purser agrees. “I would like to see more plus-size women as romantic interests because I don’t think we see enough of that,” she said. “I’d also like to see more mental health representation. I think it’s a very important issue and one that when it is talked about people are always so grateful to have that type of visibility. I would love to see somebody tackle that in a way that’s real and respectful.”

Glamour x Tory Burch Women To Watch Lunch

PHOTO: Stefanie Keenan

Stranger Things‘ Natalia Dyer and Shannon Purser

All the women gathered at the luncheon voiced their desire to see increased visibility. Or as Queen Sugar star Dawn-Lyen Gardner put it, “I think if I boiled it down to one thing, it would be that women-centric shows don’t just draw one demographic.”

“I always just want to see things that inspire unity on television,” The Walking Dead‘s Lauren Cohan explained. “The more I can see us finding connection and oneness, the more inspired I am to create more of the same.”

Speaking of inspiration, Stranger Things‘ Natalia Dyer had an inspired idea for her show’s third season. “We need more musicals on TV. A Stranger Things musical episode—let’s make it happen! I can carry a tune and learn the moves. I’ll put in the work.”

Glamour x Tory Burch Women To Watch Lunch

PHOTO: Stefanie Keenan

The Handmaid’s Tale star Samira Wiley and her wife, Lauren Morelli

Sadly, once these conversations—and the amazing dessert—had wrapped, guests had to be on to their way (in style with Cadillac CT6 sedans)—but not before picking up a gift bag, which included a Tory Burch watch, a copy of the Glamour October issue, and Beautycounter lip gloss, mascara, and face oil. After that, it was on to the next Emmy event—and world domination, probably.



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