9 months ago
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Talk about a well-heeled score.
A million bucks worth of Jimmy Choo shoes were stolen from fashion mogul Tamara Mellon, when her valuable archive was pilfered from a Los Angeles storage unit last year.
The collection included pairs of prized Jimmy Choo shoes that had been featured on “Sex and the City,” and that graced stars’ perfectly manicured feet at the Oscars, among other glittering moments.
The Los Angeles Police Department announced last summer in a press release that they’d busted some alleged crooks behind a $1 million shoe caper — but until now, it wasn’t known that that shoes were Mellon’s Choos.
The accused thieves were caught when they were allegedly trying to sell off the goods online, according to the LAPD release.
Luckily Mellon — who founded the luxury Jimmy Choo line before launching her own eponymous brand — got back about 85 percent of her collection, she exclusively tells us.
The stolen collection included pairs of prized Jimmy Choo shoes that had been worn by celebrities. Getty Images for Tamara Mellon“Basically there’d been a run of storage burglaries in Los Angeles,” Mellon told us when reached for comment.
The storage thieves happened upon her shoe trove. “It was their lucky day,” Mellon said. “It was my Jimmy Choo archive, which is worth a million in really valuable things from my 16 years” at the brand. And, “If I went to sell it it would be a lot more.”
Oddly, life imitated art in this case, as an episode of HBO’s “The Sopranos” once featured Christopher Moltisanti stealing some Choo shoes for his gal pal Adriana La Cerva, but nabbing the wrong size.
The shoes were also featured regularly on another HBO hit, “Sex and the City,” prompting a famous line when Carrie Bradshaw lost a heel while running for a ferry and calling out, “I lost my Choo!”
Pairs had been also featured on “Sex and the City.” WireImage The LAPD said it arrested four suspects in connection to the shoe theft. Getty Images for Saks Fifth AvenueMellon tells us that one day she plans to properly show off the collection.
“My intention to build the archive is to have a retrospective one day at a museum,” she said.
“There are so many pairs of shoes in there,” she told us. “So many special moments,” including the shoes that were worn at the Academy Awards.
She said it’s hard for her to pick one particular pair that stands above the rest.
Mellon luckily got 85 percent of her Jimmy Choo archive back. Getty ImagesShe also thanked the LAPD detectives who got the shoes back.
“They were really, really good, they truly were,” she said.
The LAPD issued a press release on July 18, 2023, that said they’d arrested four men in connection with robberies at a storage facility, “in excess of one-million dollars in high-end shoes and vintage comic books.” (The comic book haul was from another score by the alleged crooks at the same storage facility.)
Mellon, who co-founded Jimmy Choo in 1996, launched her own line after exiting the brand. Getty Images The shoe designer thanked the LAPD for cracking the case. David Edwards/MediaPunchCops said at the time that the investigation was ongoing. According to court records, the suspects all later pleaded no contest to charges ranging from burglary to receiving stolen goods. One of the cases was dismissed after the plea, according to Los Angeles county court records.
Mellon co-founded Jimmy Choo in 1996, and left in 2011 to start her namesake line, which has been beloved by stars from Beyoncé and Kylie Jenner.
It was reported in a 2018 New York Times profile that Mellon had 3,000 pairs of shoes that she designed in her own closet.
