Tory Burch

Burch was born in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Reva (née Schapira) and Ira Earl "Bud" Robinson (1923–2007).

She was raised with her three brothers in a 250-year-old Georgian farmhouse near Valley Forge National Historical Park.

Her father was a wealthy investor who inherited a stock exchange seat and a paper cup company.

Burch is Jewish on her mother's side.

Burch attended the Agnes Irwin School in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, where she was a friend of jewelry designer Kara Ross.

Her first job was at Benetton in the King of Prussia mall.

Tory Burch (née Robinson; born June 17, 1966) is an American fashion designer, businesswoman, and philanthropist.

She is the Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of her own brand, Tory Burch LLC.

She then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in art history, and graduated in 1988.

Burch is a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

After graduating from college, Tory moved to New York City, where she worked for Zoran, a Yugoslavian designer, followed by Harper's Bazaar magazine.

She then moved into public relations and advertising positions at Vera Wang, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Loewe when Narciso Rodriguez was there.

, she is listed as the 88th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Burch began her fashion label – "TRB by Tory Burch", later known as Tory Burch – in February 2004, launching it with a retail store in Manhattan's Nolita district.

In 2005, Burch won the Rising Star Award for Best New Retail Concept from the Fashion Group International.

In 2007, she won the Accessory Brand Launch of the year award at the Accessories Council Excellence Awards.

She chaired the 2007 spring gala for the American Ballet Theatre.

In 2008, Burch won the Council of Fashion Designers of America award for Accessories Designer of the Year.

In 2009, Burch founded the Tory Burch Foundation, which supports the economic empowerment of women in the U.S. through small business loans, mentoring, and entrepreneurial education.

Burch's stores sell products whose proceeds support the foundation's work.

Among its initiatives, the Tory Burch Foundation offered an entrepreneurial education program, in collaboration with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses and Babson College.

The foundation also offers a fellows program providing women entrepreneurs with business-education grants, mentoring, and networking opportunities.

In 2023, the foundation joined with Billie Jean King and the International Tennis Federation's Advantage All program to launch the Tory Burch Foundation Sports Fellowship, which provides an education grant, networking support, and one-on-one mentoring for female entrepreneurs in the sports industry.

In 2014, the foundation launched Elizabeth Street Capital, an initiative with Bank of America, to provide women entrepreneurs with access to low-cost loans and mentoring support.

The initiative, originally named for the location of the first Tory Burch boutique, is now known as the Tory Burch Foundation Capital Program.

In 2015 Burch also introduced a separate performance activewear line, Tory Sport.

Working Mother included her on their list of the 50 Most Powerful Moms of 2015.

In 2015, she received the Breast Cancer Research Foundation's Sandra Taub Humanitarian Award.

Burch has consistently been included on Forbes' list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women.

In November 2019, Burch was named a Glamour Woman of the Year.

She was listed as the 88th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2020.

As of 2020, it has grown to include more than 350 stores worldwide; the fashion line is also carried at over 3,000 department and specialty stores worldwide.

In November 2020, she was featured in a cover story in Forbes magazine on how her fashion company navigated the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, she was named an inaugural member of the advisory council for the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum in Washington, DC.

In 2022, the Wharton School's Jay H. Baker Retailing Center and Retail Leaders Circle honored her with its inaugural Retail Excellence Award in recognition of her industry leadership and support of women entrepreneurs.

In 2022 she also received the Parsons Table Award from the Parsons School of Design; the award "recognizes individuals who have made a noteworthy impact on the design industry and have inspired our students".

In addition, she received the CARE Impact Award for Women's Inspirational Leadership in 2022 from CARE International.

In 2023, the CFDA Fashion Awards nominated Burch for Womenswear Designer of the Year.

Burch serves on the boards of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the Startup America Partnership, and the Barnes Foundation.

She is a member of the Industry Advisory Board of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School of Business, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.