The battle of the Burches has taken a bitter turn, with Tory Burch slamming her ex, Chris Burch, in a new lawsuit claiming he brazenly stole her company secrets to create “knockoff” brand C. Wonder.
In her explosive countersuit filed yesterday against Chris, her husband of 10 years until 2005, Tory charges that he claimed his company would sell home goods and electronics, and she was aghast when his first store opened in SoHo.
Her suit, filed in Delaware, says he “copied the Tory Burch brand image — from the lacquered front doors, to store fixtures, to furnishings . . . the store was stocked with mass-market versions of the top selling Tory Burch items.”
Tory calls C. Wonder “a knockoff brand selling lower-quality products at lower prices . . . And he was doing so . . . as an insider who had been given some of the most competitively sensitive information the company possessed.”
Tory started her firm with Chris in 2004. It now has 82 stores worldwide. But Vanity Fair has described their bitter feud as “one of the oddest ex-spousal relationships in New York society.”
Chris sued Tory last month for breach of contract and interference with the sale of his 28 percent stake, worth $600 million, in the Tory Burch line. He claimed he was the business brains behind her brand. But she charges back in her suit, “Chris wasted the company’s time, money and energy pursing potential factories that almost never panned out.” She claimed he even presented a cheaper copy of her famous Reva ballet slipper, but “Chris did not even realize the copy was made of plastic, not leather.”
Chris’ lawyer, Andrew J. Rossman, said Tory’s claims “are absolutely baseless. We are pleased the court has granted our request for an expedited trial in early spring, and we look forward to refuting their claims and proving ours.
“Tory Burch didn’t invent the cardigan sweater or the ballet flat. And she doesn’t have a monopoly on bright colors or gold buttons. C. Wonder has the same right to these timeless and basic elements as every other brand.”
Tory’s trial judge, Leo Strine of Delaware Chancery Court, spoke to WWD, calling the case a “drunken WASP fest.” (WASP stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, and is basically synonymous with East Coast preppies.)
The judge said he’s excited for the case. “We’ll be all geared up and in the mood for this sort of drunken WASP fest,” he said and dismissed the fact that Tory is actually Jewish.
“Honestly, there are hundreds of people in New Castle County who could make a bunch of clothes if you gave them the catalogues,” Strine said.