Jimmy Choo Bucks Tradition, Taps AR New York as Ad Agency

Jimmy Choo is taking its advertising out of house this year.

The London-based luxury footwear brand, popularized in large part by the role it played (alongside Manolo Blahniks) in Sex and the City and owned by boldfacer Tamara Mellon (you may also remember her ex-husband, Matthew Mellon, whose name she kept) announced today that it has tapped AR, New York, as its agency of record.

"A key pillar of our strategy is to elevate our advertising, increase our media presence and synchronize all consumer touch points," said Choo CEO Joshua Schulman, in a statement. "We believe that AR will add great value to our communications efforts and help us to achieve these strategic goals."

The brand has managed to create quite a stir with its in-house campaigns (such as the one pictured, right, featuring Molly Simms and the seeming non-sequitur appearance of Quincy Jones) over the past several years, so it will be interesting to see the type of creative that ends up rolling out of this external operation.

"[AR] understands exactly my vision for Jimmy Choo," added Mellon, in a statement. "Working with an agency of this caliber is consistent with my goal to elevate our brand to one of the world's leading luxury houses."

AR currently handles advertising duties  for Brooks Brothers, Elie Tahari, Jones New York, and Valentino. They were also the agency responsible for repositioning the image of the Banana Republic brand, elevating it to the more upscale fashion label it has become in recent years.