Who

Thanks to a clientele of loyal, well-to-do women—not to mention an on-air endorsement by Oprah—Tory Burch turned her elegant, bohemian fashion upstart into a powerhouse almost overnight.

Backstory

Raised in a very well-to-do family outside Philadelphia—her father was an investor, her mother a former actress—Tory attended Penn and had early PR jobs at Ralph Lauren, Loewe, and Vera Wang. After getting hitched venture capitalist Christopher Burch in 1997, Burch took a break from her career to focus on raising her three boys, returning to the business in 2004 thanks to financing from her exceedingly rich husband. In February of 2004, she opened her first clothing store in Nolita. Her notoriety on the social scene meant that the fashionista set immediately pounced, and almost every item in the store was sold on opening day. But it was her appearance on Oprah a year later that served as a real turning point: Her sit-down with the talk show queen provided the line with priceless exposure and boosted sales. (It also made every rising designer in New York suddenly yearn for an invite to Chicago.) Since then the label has ballooned into a multi-million-dollar empire, with clothes, shoes and handbags. Today there are Tory Burch boutiques in LA, Dallas, and Atlanta, her line is at department stores like Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale's, and she's even earned the ultimate seal of approval from the industry: In 2008 she beat out Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors to be named accessories designer of the year at the CFDA awards.

In person

Tan and blonde with blindingly white teeth and surgically-sculpted nose (and always groomed to within an inch of her life), Burch may convey the image of a perfect WASP but she's actually Jewish. (Some have suggested that Burch has tried to downplay her non-WASP roots.) A staple on the benefit circuit, she's a regular at the Costume Institute Gala and the ABT Spring Gala, where she served as chair in 2007 along with Caroline Kennedy, Carolina Herrera, Susan Fales-Hill, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, and Sloan Lindemann Barnett.

Personal

Tory was married to real estate devloper Billy Macklowe for less than a year in her early twenties. She later married Chris Burch in 1997, but the two divorced in 2006. They had three kids during the marriage, including twin boys. (Chris also has three kids from his first marriage.) And although they're no longer together, Chris remains co-chairman of the company. Tory made the rounds following the split, appearing in society blind items as the other woman and socializing with high-profile men like Ron Perelman, before taking up with testicular cancer poster-boy Lance Armstrong, who asked her out after reading her 2007 profile in Vanity Fair. The pair split up in October 2007, and Tory has since been linked to Warner Music honcho Lyor Cohen.

Habitat

Tory and kids remain in the apartment she used to share with Chris Burch. You would, too: It's a 9,000-square-foot apartment in the Pierre designed by Daniel Romualdez with priceless Central Park views.