Tory Burch Is Launching an Athletic Line For Fancy People

Tory Burch, whose ultra-conservative designs have outfitted uptown power brokers and aspiring sorority sisters alike, is getting into the athleisure game and the target market is pretty clear: fancy people whose idea of “sport” is primarily Wimbledon and polo matches.

From an interview with Vogue promoting “Tory Sport”:

But if you grew up with Tory on Philadelphia’s Main Line, where as the captain of the varsity tennis team at the Agnes Irwin School for girls she had a two-handed topspin backhand that was a kill shot, or if you have played at her garden court in Southampton, Long Island, steps away from the Jazz Age neo-Georgian mansion where she spends summer weekends, then you already know that Tory plays to win.

She laughs gently. “I don’t think I’m competitive,” she says.

One can hear the glasses clink. In a slideshow, Burch is posed with her children, who are named things like “Sawyer” and “Pookie”; the writer of the piece, elaborating on her leisurely chicness, approaches the story with the type of Great Gatsby, fabulosity-and-riches extravagance that Vogue sometimes assumes, usually from my fave Plum Sykes, though the absurdity of this one is tone-perfect.

Last Christmas, on holiday in Mustique with her children, Tory popped over to Antigua to investigate a house that had belonged to Bunny Mellon but had been empty and on the market for years. A pink, vaguely colonial dwelling, it needed a complete overhaul but bewitched in the way Bunny Mellon houses do. “She left a lot of her furniture and objects,” Tory recalls, “some crumbling paintings, old wicker, and blue-and-white china, which I collect. It was so shabby but so perfect.”

Once again, the patina of yesteryear cast a spell. “The house, the way I envision it, will be simple,” she says. “It will be about sailing, golf, tennis, beach, and family.” The trade winds are sure to tempt Pierre-Yves, a gifted sailor who is no less deft on horseback or holding a tennis racket. He is happy to serve as Tory’s doubles partner. “She’s tough,” he says. “I’d rather play with her than against her.”

LOL, let me just pop over to Antigua real quick to check out this vaguely colonial dwelling that Bunny Mellon used to own (you know what Bunny Mellon houses are like, right?) and become bewitched by the patina of yesteryear!

Anyway, she’s also a philanthropist and her namesake foundation is devoted to helping women entrepreneurs, which is excellent. The clothes, which are fairly basic, are inspired by the Royal Tenenbaums, which becomes fairly obvious when you see that cable-knit V-neck, though there is entirely too few fur coats and eyeliner. Expect to see them in stores this autumn.