BUY IN MY SHOES | TAMARA MELLON | BOOK REVIEW

SUBJECT: 3.5/5

WRITING STYLE: 3/5

CANDIDNESS: 2.5/5

ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5

All we ladies know how much we covet our Christian Loboutins, Manolo Blahniks, Alexander McQueen and Jimmy Choos. But the kind of reverence Jimmy Choos commands from us is simply indispensable. We crave Jimmy Choos, we lust after Jimmy Choos and most importantly we even dream about Jimmy Choos. But on a deeper level, how much do we really know about our favourite shoes brand and how much do we really know about the kind of effort and hard work which went into its creation.

In My Shoes is an extraordinary tale of a lady who chooses to fight against all odds and does what her heart tells her to do. Tamara grew up as a lonely teenager in the company of her indifferent mother and always-busy father. Growing up without proper guidance and care, she soon found herself in the clutches of all kinds of addiction. With drugs having become a regular part of her life, she soon gave away her job and her life to be in the solitary confinement of a jail called addiction. But, it was rather lucky of her that she came across a friend who referred her to a good rehabilitation center and it was there she found it at last; her freedom from the shackles of addiction. Soon after, she had hit an idea, an idea to create a shoe brand that would be at the center stage of the world fashion. She came across Jimmy Choo, a locally famous couture cobbler who had his momentary share of global fame when he was asked to make shoes for Britain Monarch Queen Elizabeth II.

It was Tamara, who got the idea of making Jimmy Choo more than just a couture cobbler shop and into a brand of global name and fame. She launched herself into action by first approaching her father and many others with the business model for further funding. Once done with that, a lot of activity went into the designing of shoes and finding out reliable and quality conscious suppliers who would be able to produce her designs. Though Jimmy Choo and Tamara were into this together, Tamara soon found out that Jimmy always gave priority and time to his couture shop business rather than focusing on their newly found partnership business. What followed was an ugly brawl which lasted long enough to sour the relationship between the two forever and which ultimately resulted in the exit of Jimmy Choo from his own-and-named-after brand.

Later, the company went through a much tumultuous phase with the constant incoming and outgoing of private equity owners, so much so that it got to a point where the woman behind the company and its success had to finally leave the company. The brawls over the ownership and control of Jimmy Choo, and the subsequent legal battles which arose out of it is very much what the book talks about in its latter half. Thus, though interesting initially, the book later became too technical for a normal reader.

The book is written in natural and easy to flow style but becomes a little taxing towards the end. In conclusion, ‘In My Shoes’ is an okay read and can be suggested as a onetime take.

So, how did you like this book/review? Please do let me know your thoughts by dropping a comment below.