Tory Burch may be the very definition of a lifestyle brand, one in which la vie Tory informs the lot. Last summer, she vacationed on Italy's unbelievably picturesque Amalfi Coast, which gave grist to the mill. Voilà, her Resort collection, full of sun-bleached colors, Italianate accents like tile work and mosaic prints, and seaside accoutrements. The charm of the thing is that Burch manages to make it inviting to resorters who travel (like, say, herself) and resorters who don't. Even her forays into luxury fabrics are leavened with less, to be approachable both in style and in price. A brocaded skirt was shown unfussily with a cotton military jacket (and even less fussily with a bandeau top). Walking through the collection at the lookbook shoot, Burch realized she was wearing nearly the same thing. It's not only that Tory manages to make her globe-trotting fabulosity palatable to the contemporary client; it's that she manages to keep it interesting to herself, too. The magic works both ways, which may be exactly what keeps the registers ringing and the global expansion expanding.
