Tory Burch (née Robinson; born June 17, 1966) is an American fashion designer and businesswoman. She is the executive chairman and chief creative officer of her own brand, Tory Burch LLC. She was listed as the 88th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2020.
Burch was born in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Reva (née Schapira) and Ira Earl "Bud" Robinson (1923–2007). She was raised with her three brothers in a 250-year-old Georgian farmhouse near Valley Forge National Historical Park.
Her father was a wealthy investor who inherited a stock exchange seat and a paper cup company. Burch is Jewish on her mother's side.
Burch attended the Agnes Irwin School in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, where she was a friend of jewelry designer Kara Ross. Her first job was at Benetton in the King of Prussia mall. She then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in art history and graduated in 1988. Burch is a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. She has cited her participation in the undergraduate study-abroad program Semester at Sea as a formative experience. She stated that traveling around the world and witnessing poverty in developing countries influenced her interest in philanthropy and later helped inspire the creation of the Tory Burch Foundation.
After graduating from college, Tory moved to New York City, where she worked for
Zoran, a Yugoslavian designer, followed by Harper's Bazaar magazine. She then moved into public relations and advertising positions at Vera Wang, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Loewe, when Narciso Rodriguez was there.
Burch began her fashion label – "TRB by Tory Burch", later known as Tory Burch – in February 2004, launching it with a retail store in Manhattan's Nolita district. By August 2025, it had grown to 400 stores worldwide; the fashion line is also carried at over 3,000 department and specialty stores worldwide.
In 2015, Burch also introduced a separate performance activewear line, Tory Sport.
In 2005, Burch won the Rising Star Award for Best New Retail Concept from the Fashion Group International. In 2007, she won the Accessory Brand Launch of the year award at the Accessories Council Excellence Awards. In 2008, she won the Council of Fashion Designers of America award for Accessories Designer of the Year.
From 2010 to 2020, Burch was included on Forbes' list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women six times.
In 2015, Burch was included on Working Mother's list of the 50 Most Powerful Moms, and she received the Breast Cancer Research Foundation's Sandra Taub Humanitarian Award.
In November 2019, Burch was named a Glamour Woman of the Year. In November 2020, she was featured in a cover story in Forbes magazine on how her fashion company navigated the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, she was named an inaugural member of the advisory council for the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum in Washington, DC.
In 2022, the Wharton School's Jay H. Baker Retailing Center and Retail Leaders Circle honored her with its inaugural Retail Excellence Award in recognition of her industry leadership and support of women entrepreneurs, she received the Parsons Table Award that, "recognizes individuals who have made a noteworthy impact on the design industry and have inspired our students," from the Parsons School of Design, and she received the CARE Impact Award for Women's Inspirational Leadership from CARE International.
In 2023, the CFDA Fashion Awards nominated Burch for Womenswear Designer of the Year, and Harper's Bazaar named her Designer of the Year.
In 2024, she was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. and her company was included on Time's list of the 100 Most Influential Companies. Also in 2024, she was honored as WWD Women's Designer of the Year.
In 2025, she received the SCAD Étoile Award from Savannah College of Art and Design. In 2026, Burch was honored as Designer of the Year at the Fashion Trust U.S. Awards.
Burch is on the board of directors of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and is a sustaining member of the administrative board of the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She is an honorary trustee of the Barnes Foundation.