It’s been nearly two years since the Met has hosted an in-person speaker series or panel, and last night Tory Burch took the stage with Alina Cho to recount all that’s happened since—in her own life, her business, and in fashion at large. As one of America’s most prominent designers, Burch took on a leadership role during the pandemic, making calls to Congress and the US Treasury to push for aid in the fashion industry as stores closed, employees were furloughed, and cashflow ground to a halt. “Nobody was talking about fashion,” Burch says. “There was the food industry, the airline industry… But there was not one person looking out for the millions and millions of people [who work in the fashion industry].” (Hmm, any guesses why our male-dominated government might ignore an industry widely associated with women?)
For many in the audience, and those tuning in virtually, last night’s talk with Cho was a glimpse into how Burch weathered the initial months of lockdown, as well as the difficult business decisions she and her husband-slash-CEO, Pierre-Yves Roussel, made to save their company. “I was thinking, how long can a company last [while still] paying people and making sure they have health benefits during a pandemic?” Burch says. “I was looking at something that I spent 16 years building basically crumbling to the ground. And there was nothing [we] could do.”
For months, it was impossible to see a light at the end of the tunnel, but by January of 2021, Burch’s business was seeing record sales. Fashion has recovered faster than anticipated (so far, at least), as people ditch their sweats and outfit themselves for the new world. “People want to dream,” Burch says. “I’ve always been intrigued by how we [can] make women feel more confident—how do we really stand for something that isn’t about price or about luxury, it’s about quality and beauty. I think people are tired of staying in—they want to go out and celebrate and live life.”
Below, more takeaways from her revealing conversation with Cho.
On the early days of the pandemic:
“I don’t think we left one room for six weeks. It was that scary… And it was literally 18-hour days. It was everything from, let’s figure out how we keep payroll going, because you can’t keep paying people indefinitely. That’s not the way the company is set up. We really were trying to figure that out, [and] figure out how to get support, how to make sure people were still able to do their jobs. One thing that was amazing, aside from my extraordinary team, is that we all focused on the concept of innovation—how do you dream and try to keep the company interesting, and design product when we aren’t together?”
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