Jimmy Choo is a British luxury fashion house specialising in shoes, handbags, accessories and fragrances. The company, J. Choo Limited, was founded in 1996 by Malaysian Chinese couture shoe designer Jimmy Choo and British Vogue accessories editor Tamara Mellon. The brand claims to have been a favourite of Diana, Princess of Wales. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired in November 2017 by Michael Kors Holdings, now Capri Holdings.

The brand traces its roots to shoemaker Jimmy Choo who had set up his workshop in the late 1980s out of the converted Metropolitan Free Hospital in the East End of London. He was distributing his shoes at a stall of the local market. He was known by the editors of fashion industry magazines because he could recreate Manolo Blahnik's high-heeled shoes in different colours. Sandra Choi, Choo's wife's niece, joined him in 1989 and quickly became in charge of designing the shoes. In the early 1990s, Choo catered to the global jet set, including Diana, Princess of Wales. "Choo first met Diana [in 1991] when he was summoned to Kensington Palace by the princess after his name across in the Press. 'I was so excited I could not sleep the whole night. In fact I was so scared of oversleeping that I practically stay awaked.' [...] The subsequent meetings were even less formal and they soon became great friends."

The first ready-to-wear shoes were sold in September 1992 at the Gina store on 42 Sloane Street. In the early nineties, Jimmy Choo met with Tamara Mellon who, as a Vogue fashion assistant, would often ask Jimmy's help in customising shoes. After she quit Vogue, Tamara proposed in 1995 to Choo to develop a luxury, ready-to-wear line of shoes. The company was founded in May 1996 when Tom and Ann Yeardye decided to fund their daughter's idea by investing £150,000 in return for 50% of Jimmy Choo Limited and the right to use the name Jimmy Choo. Tamara was made President, Tom chairman.

On July 5, 1998, Choo is mentioned in the fifth episode of HBO's Sex and the City: this marked the launch of a celebrity-driven go-to-market model. It confirmed the need to open a US store fast: this was done in November 1998. Following this opening, Tamara Mellon, Sandra Choi, and Marilyn Heston's Get Good Ink PR agency continued to work on the celebrities angle by making a large showing at the Academy Awards in March 1999: they dyed the Jimmy Choos they were loaning to actresses for the Oscars night in colours that matched their dresses.

These years were also marked by a growing tension between Choo and Tamara Mellon, with Tom Yeardye often acting as the calming agent. Choo was more interested in couture shoe making whereas the Yeardyes wanted to scale ready-to-wear: "I love the idea of couture and its emphasis on creation. [...] I leave the ready-to-wear to my partner and team." A pair of couture shoes would take two weeks to manufacture with the assistance of eight people.

In 1998, Choo moved his couture workshop from Hackney to 18 Connaught Street. Tom offered to buy Choo out but the latter refused to sell.

Robert Bensoussan, former director of sales for Sonia Rykiel (1986–89), director of international sales for Escada (1990–92), CEO of Christian Lacroix (1993–97) and Gianfranco Ferré (1999-2000) called Tamara Mellon in April 2001 to "convince her that he was the one who could take the business to the next level".

Bensoussan contacted David Burns, the head of the consumer, leisure and retail practice of Phoenix Equity Partners to set up with them "a new investment vehicle, Equity Luxury Holdings, which would invest in other UK brands that. like Jimmy Choo, could be developed."