Michael Kors Collection (Q3370)
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multinational fashion brand
- MK
- Kors
- MichaelKors
- MichaelKors.com
- Capri Holdings
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Michael Kors Collection |
multinational fashion brand |
|
Statements
He had me atThe Talented Mr. Ripley.Though I was dubious that the Netflix series could live up to the 1999 film orPurple Noonbefore it, I was a quick convert when it streamed this summer. Michael Kors and his husband Lance LePere fell hard too. The mood board in Kors’s showroom was pinned with a photo of Dickie and Marge from theRipleyminiseries, along with black-and-white photos of Italian cliffs and sea.“It was still romantic, but darker,” Kors said of the series. “And did you know it was shot in color because Showtime, its original network, wouldn’t green light it in black-and-white? They converted it.” The noirish cinematography of the series, so different from its sun-drenched predecessors, is essential to its appeal, and it influenced Kors’s collection, as did its rougher-around-the edges sensibility.This wasn’t a dark collection—that’s not in Kors’s design vocabulary. His idea was to dig into the “rustic opulence,” he saw in elements ofRipleyand on a recent trip to Ischia and Procida. Naturally, bathing suit dressing played a part. The show opened with a 1950s maillot, high-slit skirt, and a leather basket bag, and closed with an embellished broderie anglaise bandeau and long skirt.In between it back-and-forthed and blended city and country, high and low. Raffia trimmed everything from a ribbed knit tunic sweater to a lace dress, and embellished a “cocktail shaker” of a skirt worn with another maillot. Craft was very much in focus here, but it didn’t impinge on Kors’s trademark polish. On that front, he engineered shirts to stand away from the shoulders, and cut sequin and lace party dresses with portrait necklines. Marge covered, he turned his attention to Dickie, combing a navy top coat, black trousers, and brown turtleneck with white accessories. Did you clock the copies of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in those basket bags? “Print isn’t dead,” he said at our preview. I appreciated that too.
10 September 2024
In the middle of Michael Kors’s mood board for fall was a black-and-white photo of his grandparents on their wedding day. “I was always absolutely enraptured with how my grandmother looked in her dress,” Kors said at a preview. “There was such simplicity to it, so chic. It’s the height of the ’30s. When my mom passed away over the summer, we were going through everything, and all of a sudden I saw this garment bag, and I opened it up and there it was. It’s the ultimate sleeping beauty story.”The dress was a two-fer, with a modest tunic over a “sensuous, sinewy” bias-cut number, the latter of which proved inspirational. “I started thinking about what endures,” Kors said. On the mood board, his grandmother was surrounded by women of other generations in bias-cut slips: Carole Lombard, Elizabeth Taylor, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell. And for a counterpoint, there was tailoring of the Katharine Hepburn and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy school: strong yet feminine, with sharp shoulders and sculpted waists in Prince of Wales checks, herringbones, and camels.Kors is at his best reworking polished New York classics like this. He doesn’t just know the American sportswear canon, he’s helped shape it these last 40 years, as the mood board photo of Rene Russo wearing his designs inThe Thomas Crown Affair(a quarter century ago this year) reminded anybody who looked.Fashion has changed since that movie came out in 1999, of course, and those shifts were reflected here, in the way a cashmere hoodie, say, replaced a turtleneck sweater under a tailored jacket, or in the fact that a sequined hoodie was worn solo, sans pants. Still, this came across as one of Kors’s more timeless proposals. A woman couldn’t go wrong with the slightly oversize navy trench, or the cool black aviator jacket. Most elegant was a look Kors laughingly described as “both grandparents” that combined an elongated double-breasted black jacket over a black silk knee-length slip dress with a split train that was modeled on the “sleeping beauty” wedding dress.
13 February 2024
We weren’t in Capri, but Team Michael Kors worked hard to transport us there this morning: building a whitewashed boardwalk at Domino Park in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, draping the metal railing above the East River with great bunches of fuchsia bougainvillea, and somehow charming the weather gods into keeping the rain and baking heat of the last few days of New York Fashion Week at bay.At a preview in his studio yesterday, Kors was crossing his fingers for a dry morning and talking about his summer trips. “For me, the joy that travel brings to life is everything,” he said. “Where do you feel most joyous, most romantic? On holiday—it’s about escape.” Barefoot glamour was his working concept for spring. On his mood board, Jackie O walks down a Capri street in her bare feet; Jane Birkin wears a lace top cropped a good four inches above her navel; and Marisa Berenson is eating alfresco in a bikini punctuated with gold hoop hardware. There was a picture of a young Michael and his mom on a poolside lounge chair pinned up too. Kors lost his mother, Joan, just a month ago. “With her passing, the trips we took together resonate even more for me,” he added.The clothes that came down the runway will look familiar to anyone who has studied that late-’60s/early-’70s moment. Birkin’s daring lace dress, which plunged all the way past the belly button, was reimagined with a slightly more modest keyhole neckline, but her lace crop top was reproduced most faithfully. Kors resurrected the era’s Empire waists and micro-hem lengths, and Berenson’s gold bikini hardware was a recurring motif, including on the straps of a black maillot: Just add a gauzy skirt and you’ll be ready for dinner too. The pantsless looks might’ve been a nod to Kors’s mother. At the preview, he recalled how she wore just an elongated sweater to his bar mitzvah—and raised a few eyebrows, not least from her own mother, in the process. This would’ve been the early ’70s: “[My grandmother] asked, ‘What are you wearing?’ And my mom just replied, ‘Why wouldn’t I wear it? I feel comfortable in it.’”One reason the clothes of that period continue to have resonance half a century later is because of what they signified. Second-wave feminism was in its ascendance and birth control pills were newly available, giving women freedoms both sexual and financial that they hadn’t experienced before.
It was a time of expanding opportunities, unlike our current moment, with the right chiseling away at our sexual and reproductive rights. Kors was thinking about escapism; he wanted a feel-good collection. But it was a poignant one too.
11 September 2023
When Gloria Steinem appeared arm-in-arm with two friends just as the Michael Kors show started, Molly Ringwald, seated across the front row, burst into applause. Ms., the magazine Steinem founded, turned 50 last year, and she herself is nearing 90. Fashion can feel like a young person’s game, and Kors’s audience had its share of ingenues, but on his moodboard this season it was all muses of a 1970s vintage and gravitas: Steinem, Cher, Tina Turner, Lena Horne, Ali McGraw, and Jane Fonda, along with a news clipping of Kors’s own mother Joan, who made the paper when she tried to try out for the Philadelphia Eagles.Kors has always loved the ’70s and he’s at his best when he’s channeling the American sportswear of the era, with its clean lines and unfussy swagger. The first look called Steinem to mind, from the model’s shield sunglasses on down to the micro shorts and knee-high boots, a mile of bare leg in between. The ’70s callbacks kept coming in the form of exaggerated bell-bottoms and short fringe dresses, the difference being the kind of materials Kors was using. The fringe was sturdy bonded suede, so it could still be shimmying in 2070, and the flares were jersey stitched with micro sequins, comfortable and glam.If the hip-slung chrome buckle belt looks familiar that’s because it was lifted from a circa 2004 Kors collection. Last season he reproduced another early ’00s belt and it got a “crazy waiting list,” he reported. Kors has been around the block enough times to understand that it really does pay to design what you know. Not for him the “ridiculous hijinks” seen on other New York runways. What we got instead was the signature double-face cashmere outerwear, strong double-breasted suit jackets, and soft knit dresses cut with the fluid bell sleeves Horne once told the designer were her wardrobe secret weapon. Was there just a smidge of defiance in name-checking all those 70- and 80-somethings? I loved to see it.
15 February 2023
Sexy, streamlined clothes are trending at New York Fashion Week. At Michael Kors, they’re evocative of the 1970s, when Lauren Hutton and Naomi Sims appeared on the covers of magazines and Halston (dresses and the man himself) ruled the Studio 54 dance floor. Other designers have been looking to ’90s minimalism. There’s a link between those eras, which covered the second and third waves of feminism, and now. Since the rollback of Roe v. Wade, the fight for women’s rights has become more urgent. We’re fighting for control of our bodies. Fashion is a mirror of the time, so it makes sense that the body has come into such sharp focus on the runways.At a showroom preview, Kors was talking about the hallmarks of good American design: movement and sensuality. “It’s what made me love American style. Halston, Burrows, and Rudi Gernreich, it was about freeing the body, all in different ways.” Kors was up to something similar here, combining the chic urban tailoring he’s known for with the relaxed, yet hedonistic spirit of resort wear. An elongated blazer topped a bandeau and sarong, and maillots were paired with fluid pleated trousers. The button-down, once the traditional accompaniment for a suit, was excised from the equation almost entirely, and the few times it did appear it was undone to the navel. The décolletage was the erogenous zone, braless naturally, though the legs got plenty of play with all the fringed pareos.Kors wasn’t just riffing on his 1970s icons, he was also quoting himself—he is an essential part of the American fashion lexicon. The gold buckles were lifted from the spring 2002 collection he showed in the wake of 9/11. They also inspired the bold gold necklaces from which he suspended liquid swaths of jersey in poppy red and bright lime green. Other evening options included Kors’s tried and true sequined stretch jersey and a gorgeous silk caftan in that vivid red. Also making a comeback: Kors favorites like Carmen Kass and Natasha Poly. This time around, body-con isn’t only for teenagers and twentysomethings.
14 September 2022
“We could all use a little froth,” Michael Kors announced at a showroom preview. He was talking about a recent trip to Broadway to see Six, the feel-good musical about Henry VIII’s six wives. But he might as well have been talking about his new collection, which in another quotable moment he called the “antithesis of sad slipper life.”Kors is determined to put the pandemic behind him and give his clients a good time. In his 42nd Street design room and in his customers’ closets at home, that means not overthinking things. Major impact à la MK means head-to-toe monochrome, be it in a cool neutral or an electric jolt of coral, yellow, or shocking pink; suiting in classic menswear materials and shapes; and athletically inclined eveningwear. A pair of over-the-knee suede stocking boots give the short lengths he showed here year-round viability. But the absolute non-negotiable is a statement piece of outerwear. “In New York, it’s your calling card,” he said.The inspiration for his clutch coats was Marilyn Monroe. She could make a beach towel look like a million bucks, but Kors’s came in double-face cashmere or faux fur. The shoulders were a key erogenous zone; underneath those clutch coats were racerback shifts or one-sleeve dresses in clingy sequined jersey. Clearly, Kors has dinner dates and nights out at the theater on the brain.First time Best Supporting Actress nominee Ariana DeBose was in the front row near Blake Lively and across the way from Brooke Shields, but if Kors is working on an Oscar dress for the West Side Story star, he’s keeping it under wraps. “There’s not a single full-on evening look that’s not as easy as a T-shirt,” he said. That’s the formula for 2022 glamour—you can cut a dress with knock-people’s-eyes-out curves, but you can’t forget comfort.
16 February 2022
Walking out of Tavern on the Green into the glorious September sunshine a colleague declared Michael Kors “a designer who knows who he is.” Which is exactly right. These 18 months of the pandemic have challenged fashion’s fundamentals—you need only look at the empty stores on Madison Avenue to see how much has changed—but Kors seems to have emerged stronger: This collection radiated confidence, cool, and optimism.At a preview, he expressed just how happy he was to do an in-person show again. He’d been back to the theater with his husband, Lance, and all around them they could see the elation on people’s faces to be able to watch live performance again. He conjured his own happiness by booking Ariana DeBose—who plays Anita in Steven Spielberg’s upcomingWest Side Story—to sing. It’s true what he said about live experiences. As expedient as videos can be, most of them fail to deliver the frisson that comes from an in-the-flesh sighting of Kendall Jenner or Gigi Hadid, or the glint of sequins beneath stage lights.Apropos of hisWest Side Storystar, Kors said he had romance on his mind. The musical’s 1950s backdrop seemed to inform the silhouettes, from Precious Lee’s sweater girl V-neck and circle skirt, to an off-the-shoulder knit sheath, to a fitted gingham shirt tucked into toreador pants. Kors cut all this with his usual sleek precision, so it never slid into retro territory, and balancing it out was his typically assured tailoring. Not many designers could cut a suit in baby blue or petal pink and have the results turn out as boss as the ones Kors showed. Should DaBose come calling for a red carpet look when her film finally premieres—COVID delayed its opening by a year—Gigi’s cross-front dress in black sequins would be a winning number.
10 September 2021
How do you sum up a four-decade career in 63 looks? In a COVID-free world, Michael Kors’s 40th would have been the biggest of fashion bashes with a celebrity-filled front row and a glam after-party. Instead, we watched from our computer screens this morning, living vicariously through Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Carolyn Murphy, and Shalom Harlow, who vamped down 45th Street in sequins and double-face cashmere. In place of Champagne there was a Russ & Daughters care package, and absent his trademark jog around the runway, Kors gave a taped message announcing a money-raising drive for the Actors Fund: “The Broadway community has been suffering terribly since the shutdown,” he said.New Yorkers had the rare chance to see an in-person Michael Kors mini show yesterday. A negative result on a Rapid Test granted entry to a Chelsea gallery space where many “so good to see yous” but none of the once standard air kisses were exchanged. The designer said that in the downtime of the pandemic, he’d gone searching for the “connective threads” of 40 years. “Certainly timelessness is something we’ve always prided ourselves in, something that I think our customers really appreciate.”Kors is a New York fashion stalwart. One season he gives his runway a timelyMad Mengloss, another it gets a Studio 54 spin, but his collections are always optimistic, always unshakably him. Much of what he did first we now take for granted. Bare legs in winter. The unexpected combination of a rhinestone-encrusted cocktail dress and a man’s topcoat. A city-country mix. An evening number with streamlined athleticism, a maillot with leather straps and matching heels. “Extremes of opulence and glamour with simplicity and ease” is how he summed up his approach. In a year when the Costume Institute is showcasing American fashion for the first time in decades it seems important to recognize that much of what we think of as American sportswear is Kors-ian sportswear.With one eye on the past, and the other on the future, he put Q.R. codes on a selection of 16 revived-from-the-archives pieces for fall. A quick scan will unlock original runway clips of the looks and present-day Kors riffing about their inception. The woman who buys look 48, a crystal-studded minidress from resort 1991, for instance, will learn about the consternation the designer sparked when he lent the in-demand piece to multiple magazines for cover shoots.
“I love that if they’re 20 or 30 years old, 20 or 30 years from now you’ll have the story built into your garment,” he said.Considering our collective experience of the last 13 months, back on 45th Street Kors put the emphasis on opulence and glamour. “People are going to want to step out, get dressed up—in certain instances get overdressed. Girls are going out for a hamburger in cocktail dresses and high heels.” This was his bid to clothe them for those reemergence moments. Maybe in a red patent leather balmacaan, a “cotton ball of a shearling coat,” or a glossy black puffer cape. Or perhaps in a hand-sequined silk jersey gown in gold under a pavement-sweeping camel cashmere coat. And always with a spiky pump or slingback.Kors was equally focused on back-to-work-wear, and his tailoring was clean, sleek, and razor-sharp whether it was cut in Prince of Wales wool or black glove leather. “Let’s go on with the show,” Rufus Wainwright crooned on the Shubert stage, as the models socially distanced in the audience. Kors believes in timelessness, but not stasis. He’s ready to go on with the show when we are.
20 April 2021
How do you sum up a four-decade career in 63 looks? In a COVID-free world, Michael Kors’s 40th would have been the biggest of fashion bashes with a celebrity-filled front row and a glam after-party. Instead, we watched from our computer screens this morning, living vicariously through Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Carolyn Murphy, and Shalom Harlow, who vamped down 45th Street in sequins and double-face cashmere. In place of Champagne there was a Russ & Daughters care package, and absent his trademark jog around the runway, Kors gave a taped message announcing a money-raising drive for the Actors Fund: “The Broadway community has been suffering terribly since the shutdown,” he said.New Yorkers had the rare chance to see an in-person Michael Kors mini show yesterday. A negative result on a Rapid Test granted entry to a Chelsea gallery space where many “so good to see yous” but none of the once standard air kisses were exchanged. The designer said that in the downtime of the pandemic, he’d gone searching for the “connective threads” of 40 years. “Certainly timelessness is something we’ve always prided ourselves in, something that I think our customers really appreciate.”Kors is a New York fashion stalwart. One season he gives his runway a timelyMad Mengloss, another it gets a Studio 54 spin, but his collections are always optimistic, always unshakably him. Much of what he did first we now take for granted. Bare legs in winter. The unexpected combination of a rhinestone-encrusted cocktail dress and a man’s topcoat. A city-country mix. An evening number with streamlined athleticism, a maillot with leather straps and matching heels. “Extremes of opulence and glamour with simplicity and ease” is how he summed up his approach. In a year when the Costume Institute is showcasing American fashion for the first time in decades it seems important to recognize that much of what we think of as American sportswear is Kors-ian sportswear.With one eye on the past, and the other on the future, he put Q.R. codes on a selection of 16 revived-from-the-archives pieces for fall. A quick scan will unlock original runway clips of the looks and present-day Kors riffing about their inception. The woman who buys look 48, a crystal-studded minidress from resort 1991, for instance, will learn about the consternation the designer sparked when he lent the in-demand piece to multiple magazines for cover shoots.
“I love that if they’re 20 or 30 years old, 20 or 30 years from now you’ll have the story built into your garment,” he said.Considering our collective experience of the last 13 months, back on 45th Street Kors put the emphasis on opulence and glamour. “People are going to want to step out, get dressed up—in certain instances get overdressed. Girls are going out for a hamburger in cocktail dresses and high heels.” This was his bid to clothe them for those reemergence moments. Maybe in a red patent leather balmacaan, a “cotton ball of a shearling coat,” or a glossy black puffer cape. Or perhaps in a hand-sequined silk jersey gown in gold under a pavement-sweeping camel cashmere coat. And always with a spiky pump or slingback.Kors was equally focused on back-to-work-wear, and his tailoring was clean, sleek, and razor-sharp whether it was cut in Prince of Wales wool or black glove leather. “Let’s go on with the show,” Rufus Wainwright crooned on the Shubert stage, as the models socially distanced in the audience. Kors believes in timelessness, but not stasis. He’s ready to go on with the show when we are.
20 April 2021
What I was really trying to answer [with this collection is] how do you get dressed when you are in power, [when] you’re making up the rules? It’s not thisDress for Successwhite blouse with a little black bowtie. It had nothing to do with that; it was much sleeker and it was sharp without looking likeDynasty.Quite honestly, I think we saw a lot of interpretations of what powerful meant in the ’80s that became a cartoon. When I designed it, and when I look back at it, that show was streamlined and powerful, there was nothing cartoon about it at all.It’s a very interesting collection because it was truly the first time that I really got that heavily into tailoring. We were really thinking about women who were truly in control, [but who] weren’t willing to give up the idea of looking sensual and female. It wasn’t a tomboy [look], but there was definitely a sense of power, so lots of tailoring in that show—and jumpsuits.I also kept thinking about alternatives. So instead of wearing a dress, what can you do? Can you wear a jumpsuit to the office? Is there a jumpsuit that you’d wear at night? What are the options? How do you get dressed and look powerful and strong, but definitely female. And so this [collection] is full of all of those ideas.The other thing that happened in that show in a big way [was my use of red.] I had always tinkered with red. When you put on something red—even if it’s just a red shoe—there’s something that just lifts your spirits. And that show is the first time where I really explored the power of this sort of head-to-toe stroke of bright, bright crimson red, and it’s still something to me that seems so powerful today.
19 April 2021
[By the time] we get to fall ’96, [fashion] is full-on ’90s. What’s so funny in retrospect is to see really how long it takes to see the evolution—from ’88 to ’96. That’s the timeframe in fashion; [things] start to shift, you start testing it, and then you start evolving, and then [it’s like], ‘Okay, here’s where we go.’This was probably the most indulgent show we ever did, at the time. It’s the first show where I did all of this double-faced cashmere, all of these incredibly lush coats. The sweaters in that show were all 10-ply cashmere. We did a lot of leather in that show, and it’s super, super sleek and unadorned, but at the same time it was indulgent. We were also starting to see the rise of the young social set in New York, and so many of those young women were clients of ours. They were going to work, they were out every night and they had new rules that had nothing to do with the ’80s rules.
19 April 2021
Right off the bat, this collection was all about legs, legs, legs, legs, legs. High heels, long legs striding down the street. At the time people were shocked and could not believe that I was going to show a fall collection with bare legs. I was the first one [to do that]. Everyone said, ‘No, no. You wear black tights in the winter.’ And I said, ‘No.’We started realizing that people were traveling more; they were in Los Angeles, they were in warmer cities. We were not suggesting people take a stroll in Chicago in February with bare legs, although later they did. [This show] became the precursor.[There’s] a lot of shine in that show, and suddenly a suit became a little trimmer, neater. It wasn’t the power suit, the shoulders were gone. [That was another] thing we were starting to see really percolate more the ’90s.I’ve always played with animal motifs; this was really the first show where I thought, You know what? We’re really going to have fun with it doing it head-to-toe. I think it happened because, again trying to balance things, I felt the abbreviated length allowed you to have this more demonstrative pattern, so that you didn’t overwhelm yourself. Your skin sort of became the accessory for the pattern.
19 April 2021
I always think that the very beginning of a decade is super interesting, because you’re going to have the hangover of what happened prior, and [the mystery of] where it is going to next? There’s this state of flux that starts to happen, and in this fall ’91 collection the idea of glamour was definitely ratcheted. It was sort of the [last] hurrah of ’80s glamour, but suddenly tempered with the ’90s coming in.I think a lot of people, when they think of Michael Kors, think of camel—the color camel. This was the first show where I wanted to take the clichés of camel, which were so preppy and so men’s wear, and I wanted to suddenly say, ‘Wait a second, how do we do glamorous camel?’ Again, we go back to that idea of juxtaposition. That you [could be] glamorous and you were tailored at the same time.There was also a lot of outerwear and a lot of coats. Prior to that, I don’t know if I ever thought about the power of outerwear. I was really exploring—whether it was an anorak, or a bathrobe coat, or a trench coat—the sort of pieces that the minute you put them on and you hit a city street [they became] sort of your calling card. Even if you were running out to the bodega for milk you had that fabulous coat on.We [also] started playing with a lot of leather [in this collection]; leather became a big part of my vocabulary. We used a lot of chocolate brown. I loved all the richness of all of the materials. Everyone always thinks that I do a lot of camel and I do a lot of black, and I do, but the brown was something just really intensely rich that I loved in this show, and something that we still love playing with.Of course that show did have a crazy moment, the ceiling caved in at the very beginning of the show, and we had plaster fall and hit Suzy Menkes and Carrie Donovan, who was atThe New York Times[then], in the head, which was not a good moment. Everyone was okay. We turned the music way down, we swept up the floor. I think you can see [in the photos] at what point the floor looks dusty. We swept it up quickly, but we definitely did not wash it professionally, that’s for sure.
19 April 2021
Had all gone according to plan, Michael Kors would’ve shown his spring collection in person, one of several designers representing a sort of New York Fashion Week part two a month after part one wrapped. But nothing in 2020 has been predictable or easy, and with COVID-19 cases creeping back up in the city, Kors and his team opted for a Zoom call yesterday. There’s also a film, made by Haley Elizabeth Anderson, shot in a New York Restoration Project community garden eight blocks from where Kors’s grandfather grew up in the Bronx and starring American Idol winner Samantha Diaz, that puts the clothes in motion.“Thirty-nine years into my career, this is definitely a first,” Kors said onVogue’s Zoom call. The lockdown changed everything about the way he conducts business. Closed factories in Italy meant he handled his fittings remotely; shuttered shops meant he did virtual trunk shows. The mid-October release date was chosen not to distract from the deliveries of his fall collection, and to shorten the length of time between this presentation and the arrival of the new clothes in stores. The plan is to show just twice a year, rather than the four times that up until now have been the industry standard.As for the new collection itself, Kors called it confidence-building. “You put it on and it makes you feel great about yourself,” he said. He’s has never designed fussy clothes, but he really emphasized simplicity here: showing mostly monochrome looks, accessorizing day and evening clothes with flat sandals, and embracing ease with an array of asymmetrical knits, pareo-style wrap skirts, and one very Lisa Taylor as shot by Helmut Newton printed dress in organic crepe de chine. Look one is white pantsuit, minimal in cut and spirit, worn with a linen gauze nightshirt. Kors said that he suggested it to one of his clients for her wedding day, and that she took him up on it.
15 October 2020
Had all gone according to plan, Michael Kors would’ve shown his spring collection in person, one of several designers representing a sort of New York Fashion Week part two a month after part one wrapped. But nothing in 2020 has been predictable or easy, and with COVID-19 cases creeping back up in the city, Kors and his team opted for a Zoom call yesterday. There’s also a film, made by Haley Elizabeth Anderson, shot in a New York Restoration Project community garden eight blocks from where Kors’s grandfather grew up in the Bronx and starring American Idol winner Samantha Diaz, that puts the clothes in motion.“Thirty-nine years into my career, this is definitely a first,” Kors said onVogue’s Zoom call. The lockdown changed everything about the way he conducts business. Closed factories in Italy meant he handled his fittings remotely; shuttered shops meant he did virtual trunk shows. The mid-October release date was chosen not to distract from the deliveries of his fall collection, and to shorten the length of time between this presentation and the arrival of the new clothes in stores. The plan is to show just twice a year, rather than the four times that up until now have been the industry standard.As for the new collection itself, Kors called it confidence-building. “You put it on and it makes you feel great about yourself,” he said. He’s has never designed fussy clothes, but he really emphasized simplicity here: showing mostly monochrome looks, accessorizing day and evening clothes with flat sandals, and embracing ease with an array of asymmetrical knits, pareo-style wrap skirts, and one very Lisa Taylor as shot by Helmut Newton printed dress in organic crepe de chine. Look one is white pantsuit, minimal in cut and spirit, worn with a linen gauze nightshirt. Kors said that he suggested it to one of his clients for her wedding day, and that she took him up on it.That’s not to say the clothes were entirely spare. In fact, Kors talked a lot about the importance of the hand. A mini shift embroidered all over in tiny little beads was modeled on a dress the editor of this magazine wore to a party in 1991; “we all did the limbo,” Kors remembered. He said he didn’t want anything to look “machine-made,” but the idea that we shouldn’t save special occasion clothes for special occasions also resonated with him. No one knows when we’ll be able to count on those again; in the meantime, why not have some fun?
15 October 2020
About a dozen looks into today’s Michael Kors show, Kaia Gerber strutted out in suede riding boots and a double-face camel cape with a deep stripe of orange and brown at the hem. It’s a circa-2020 first cousin of a cape Naomi Campbell wore in his fall 1999 show that Joan Didion subsequently fell in love with. She went on to wear it in a Tina Barney portrait. Kors has done town-and-country collections with an equestrian inflection before; this wasn’t his first rodeo, but it was a very strong outing.He set the stage with a runway of raw wood planks (they’ll be donated to Materials for the Arts afterward) and a performance by Orville Peck, the gay Canadian country singer who wears a fringed Lone Ranger mask. The collection’s blanket capes came from an urge for escape, Kors said. “It’s the dream of getting out, getting away from reality.” They looked as swaggering as they did cozy and secure in their many variations for both day and evening (and women and men). The swaddling motif extended to quilted cashmere sweatshirts and Aran sweaters, which he doubled up for emphasis. Another Aran knit was whipstitched with black leather—talk about a trophy sweater.Kors’s comfort agenda applied to both day and night. There was a terrific Prince of Wales suit with an easy-to-wear pleated midiskirt, and pleats also featured big in his eveningwear. For an even more relaxed after-dark look, he showed a black sequined smock dress over a turtleneck bodysuit and another pair of riding boots. There wasn’t a pair of stilettos in the show. At a preview, Kors talked a lot about heritage—his brand turns 40 next year, so the past is on his mind: “In 1981, I said my clothes were about dressing for a fast life.” This season, more than ever, he has us covered.
12 February 2020
About a dozen looks into today’s Michael Kors show, Kaia Gerber strutted out in suede riding boots and a double-face camel cape with a deep stripe of orange and brown at the hem. It’s a circa-2020 first cousin of a cape Naomi Campbell wore in his fall 1999 show that Joan Didion subsequently fell in love with. She went on to wear it in a Tina Barney portrait. Kors has done town-and-country collections with an equestrian inflection before; this wasn’t his first rodeo, but it was a very strong outing.He set the stage with a runway of raw wood planks (they’ll be donated to Materials for the Arts afterward) and a performance by Orville Peck, the gay Canadian country singer who wears a fringed Lone Ranger mask. The collection’s blanket capes came from an urge for escape, Kors said. “It’s the dream of getting out, getting away from reality.” They looked as swaggering as they did cozy and secure in their many variations for both day and evening (and women and men). The swaddling motif extended to quilted cashmere sweatshirts and Aran sweaters, which he doubled up for emphasis. Another Aran knit was whipstitched with black leather—talk about a trophy sweater.Kors’s comfort agenda applied to both day and night. There was a terrific Prince of Wales suit with an easy-to-wear pleated midiskirt, and pleats also featured big in his eveningwear. For an even more relaxed after-dark look, he showed a black sequined smock dress over a turtleneck bodysuit and another pair of riding boots. There wasn’t a pair of stilettos in the show. At a preview, Kors talked a lot about heritage—his brand turns 40 next year, so the past is on his mind: “In 1981, I said my clothes were about dressing for a fast life.” This season, more than ever, he has us covered.
12 February 2020
When Michael Kors and his husband, Lance LePere, were in Los Angeles recently, they stopped by The Way We Wore, Doris Raymond’s legendary vintage store. Pawing through the racks, he didn’t see much of his own work, so the designer asked Raymond, “Doris, why don’t you have any Michael Kors from the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s?” What Raymond told him was music to his ears: “My store is filled with everyone’s mistakes, with pieces that women bought and wore only once. Your clothes they keep.” The exchange prompted some contemplation of Kors’s early days—he happens to be one year shy of his 40th anniversary. He came across a picture styled by the editor in chief of this magazine during an earlier posting. Look one of his new pre-fall collection, a checked double-face cape worn with belted gauchos and boots, is not unlike that almost four-decade-old photo. “All that’s missing is the button earrings and the rouge,” Kors quipped.The cape and the gauchos set the tone for a collection that gazed west for inspiration. The designer’s timing is spot-on. Country is trending. Orville Peck, Lil Nas X, and Kacey Musgraves all had big years, and Dolly Parton is ascendant once again. But even though everything was styled with cowboy boots, the attitude remained urbane and Korsian. Tailoring took the lead, as it did at his most recent runway show, but here he traded in a primary palette for the polish of black or buff. Long leather fringe and jet beading elevated a double-breasted coatdress and a cutaway coat with puffed shoulders respectively, and there was a sharp pin-striped sharkskin three-piece suit. On the softer side, he showed printed midi-dresses with built-in capelets and loose-fitting printed smocks layered over turtleneck bodysuits and boots. For evening, a black Chantilly lace prairie blouse tucked into leg-elongating pleated and cuffed black trousers struck the “it could be 1981 or it could be 2021” vibe he was going for.
6 December 2019
No one has ever mistaken Michael Kors for a pessimist, but especially now, when divisiveness is tearing at the fabric of America, he believes in the power of positivity. “As the world gets worse, it’s the only ammunition we have,” Kors said. Over the summer, he and his husband, Lance LePere, visited Ellis Island and learned about his immigrant grandparents’ arrival to the United States. “The experience made me feel more patriotic, more open,” he said. That rubbed off on the new collection. As ever, Kors made an exploration of American sportswear, giving it a ’40s slant because that was the last moment that the country felt united. “The world was in upheaval, and Americans rolled up their sleeves and got to work,” Kors said.He staged the show at a warehouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where much of that World War II–era work got done. Jennifer Egan’s recent novelManhattan Beachpainted a vivid picture of New York in those years, when women went to work in droves, many for the first time. Kors reimagined the period in his characteristic upbeat and tony way. The palette was red, white, and blue, or primary bright, and dresses were sprinkled with lemon and cherry prints. Tailoring, always a strength chez Kors, had a can-do tenor, cut in classic tattersalls and menswear plaids with military details. Nicole Kidman, who sat front row alongside Kate Hudson and Yalitza Aparicio, seemed particularly taken by a neatly cut double-breasted navy romper with gold crystal pinstripes.The trick with looking decades back into the past is finding techniques to renew the silhouettes for today. One way Kors went about it is by adding metal studding to various pieces—punk being the flip side of prep. As with the star-and-anchor embroideries, a little of that went a long way. The nipped waist, strong-shouldered dresses of the ’40s need little adjusting. They’re perennials, and the ones he showed today will sell like hotcakes. It doesn’t get more “now” than a statement tee. Kors cut his in cashmere (what else?), with the wordhatecrossed out on the front. To help him make his point, he hired the Young People’s Chorus of New York City (the third chorus this week) to sing Don McLean and Simon & Garfunkel hits. The crowd clapped along to “Love Train,” thankful for the uplift.
11 September 2019
No one has ever mistaken Michael Kors for a pessimist, but especially now, when divisiveness is tearing at the fabric of America, he believes in the power of positivity. “As the world gets worse, it’s the only ammunition we have,” Kors said. Over the summer, he and his husband, Lance LePere, visited Ellis Island and learned about his immigrant grandparents’ arrival to the United States. “The experience made me feel more patriotic, more open,” he said. That rubbed off on the new collection. As ever, Kors made an exploration of American sportswear, giving it a ’40s slant because that was the last moment that the country felt united. “The world was in upheaval, and Americans rolled up their sleeves and got to work,” Kors said.He staged the show at a warehouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where much of that World War II–era work got done. Jennifer Egan’s recent novelManhattan Beachpainted a vivid picture of New York in those years, when women went to work in droves, many for the first time. Kors reimagined the period in his characteristic upbeat and tony way. The palette was red, white, and blue, or primary bright, and dresses were sprinkled with lemon and cherry prints. Tailoring, always a strength chez Kors, had a can-do tenor, cut in classic tattersalls and menswear plaids with military details. Nicole Kidman, who sat front row alongside Kate Hudson and Yalitza Aparicio, seemed particularly taken by a neatly cut double-breasted navy romper with gold crystal pinstripes.The trick with looking decades back into the past is finding techniques to renew the silhouettes for today. One way Kors went about it is by adding metal studding to various pieces—punk being the flip side of prep. As with the star-and-anchor embroideries, a little of that went a long way. The nipped waist, strong-shouldered dresses of the ’40s need little adjusting. They’re perennials, and the ones he showed today will sell like hotcakes. It doesn’t get more “now” than a statement tee. Kors cut his in cashmere (what else?), with the intarsia wordhatecrossed out on the front. To help him make his point, he hired the Young People’s Chorus of New York City (the third chorus this week) to sing Don McLean and Simon & Garfunkel hits. The crowd clapped along to “Love Train,” thankful for the uplift.
11 September 2019
The most straightforward thing to say about Michael Kors Resort is that it’s not a collection of getaway pieces. “When women are wearing black in Palm Beach, you know times have changed,” the designer said at his early morning presentation.Beyond the basic fact that these are urbane clothes, the story becomes more layered. Kors mixed punk embellishments with prim polka-dots, added ruffle trims to otherwise strictly cut jackets and coats, and melded eras: Shoulders conjured the can-do 1940s, and sequins brought to mind the disco slink of the ’70s, which were also a reference for his lively Fall outing. This was a demonstrative collection, all the way down to the collectible studded Aran sweaters.Suiting was its backbone. Tailoring is one of the common denominators of the season so far, but Kors seemed determined to make his uncommon. The mix of masculine and feminine was the point. He said he likes the “push-pull” of giving strength to a dress and adding softness to tailoring. Examples came in the form of bold shouldered, belted-waist frocks that peplumed above narrow skirts (they looked more like two pieces than one), and the collection’s many ruffled blazers. Some of the suits were just plain strong, like the terrific double-breasted white tuxedo with Swarovski-crystal pinstripes.That’s not to say Kors skimped on dresses. Two of the most winning—leopard-spot crepe de chine and cadet blue crepe sablé with silver studding—were three quarter–sleeve, waisted, and fell fluidly to the knees. For the gals who are actually shopping for their holiday trips, he showed a flutter-sleeve polka-dotted one-piece far too pretty for the pool.
4 June 2019
Pop culture is in the midst of a full-on ’70s rewind. FX is releasing a limited series based on the relationship between the choreographer Bob Fosse and the dancer Gwen Verdon, tagline: “He was a visionary. She made him a star.” TheHalstondocumentary was picked up at Sundance last month and will have its theatrical release later this year. And HBO is making a third season ofThe Deuce.Michael Kors isn’t about to let this party pass him by. And why should he? He lived it. At a preview, he remembered tumbling out of Studio 54 way past dawn, grabbing breakfast at a diner, and heading straight to his job at boutique Lothar’s, where he washed the nightclub’s fake snow out of his hair in the bathroom sink. “New York was a pit, but we weredressed,” he said. “Optimism in the face of adversity, it’s the only way you can win.”He isn’t the only designer who’s following the good times for Fall; the feathers and fake fur have really been flying at the New York shows. Kors had both, in the form of colorful boas and an intarsia chevron coat. The collection was informed by his West 50s stomping grounds, with Studio 54 playing the lead role. Kors secured the rights to the logo, and he made plentiful use of it, embroidering it on a sequin T-shirt dress, splashing it across a full-length puffer, and printing silk blouses for both guys and girls, worn unbuttoned to the navel in both cases. Andrea True was on the soundtrack singing “More, More, More”—of course she was. Kors knows all the oldies, and he isn’t one to shy away from camp. But there were also subtle cashmere knits in the mix—minimalist nods to Lincoln Center’s ballerinas that balanced the maximalism elsewhere. And he brought the lithe athleticism of those knits to dresses in sequined matte jersey. Dance-floor ready whatever the decade.To finish, a black curtain pulled back to reveal a wall of gold tinsel and Barry Manilow. The crooner performed “Copacabana,” after which Kors came out for his bow with another legend of the era, model Patti Hansen, who closed the show in a metallic trouser suit. Could anyone else provide this kind of fun at 10:45 a.m. on a Wednesday morning?
13 February 2019
Pop culture is in the midst of a full-on ’70s rewind. FX is releasing a limited series based on the relationship between the choreographer Bob Fosse and the dancer Gwen Verdon, tagline: “He was a visionary. She made him a star.” TheHalstondocumentary was picked up at Sundance last month and will have its theatrical release later this year. And HBO is making a third season ofThe Deuce.Michael Kors isn’t about to let this party pass him by. And why should he? He lived it. At a preview, he remembered tumbling out of Studio 54 way past dawn, grabbing breakfast at a diner, and heading straight to his job at boutique Lothar’s, where he washed the nightclub’s fake snow out of his hair in the bathroom sink. “New York was a pit, but we weredressed,” he said. “Optimism in the face of adversity, it’s the only way you can win.”He isn’t the only designer who’s following the good times for Fall; the feathers and fake fur have really been flying at the New York shows. Kors had both, in the form of colorful boas and an intarsia chevron coat. The collection was informed by his West 50s stomping grounds, with Studio 54 playing the lead role. Kors secured the rights to the logo, and he made plentiful use of it, embroidering it on a sequin T-shirt dress, splashing it across a full-length puffer, and printing silk blouses for both guys and girls, worn unbuttoned to the navel in both cases. Andrea True was on the soundtrack singing “More, More, More”—of course she was. Kors knows all the oldies, and he isn’t one to shy away from camp. But there were also subtle cashmere knits in the mix—minimalist nods to Lincoln Center’s ballerinas that balanced the maximalism elsewhere. And he brought the lithe athleticism of those knits to dresses in sequined matte jersey. Dance-floor ready whatever the decade.To finish, a black curtain pulled back to reveal a wall of gold tinsel and Barry Manilow. The crooner performed “Copacabana,” after which Kors came out for his bow with another legend of the era, model Patti Hansen, who closed the show in a metallic trouser suit. Could anyone else provide this kind of fun at 10:45 a.m. on a Wednesday morning?
13 February 2019
“It’s the Village People, but there are no tambourines,” Michael Kors quipped at his Pre-Fall presentation on West 12th Street this morning. We were a few blocks from HB Studio, the acting school where Kors took classes as a teenager, and just about the same distance from Reno Sweeney, the long-closed nightclub Kors remembers wheedling his way into at 15.“How old are you?” the bouncer asked. “16,” Kors naively replied. “You know you have to be 18 to get in here?” Apparently, the guy at the door acquiesced, because the designer-to-be managed to find his way inside. Google suggests it was the kind of place Little Edie Beale and Diane Keaton in her cabaret debut performed at. Four decades later, Kors calls Greenwich Village home. This collection was his colorful, sparkle-strewn, and dripping-in-Mongolian-lamb-fur—both real and faux—ode to the neighborhood he fell in love with in the 1970s.Kors’s nostalgia trip looks like a canny bit of timing. It’ll be in stores when the Costume Institute’s “Camp” show, and its 175 pieces celebrating the “artifice and exaggeration” of fashion, opens in May. But, of course, the collection was already well underway when the museum announced its upcoming exhibition. His motivation, he explained, was to create something “positive and optimistic.”That rings true. His recent Spring collection was a sun-drenched salute to beach culture. For Pre-Fall, he’s traded in the sandals and swimwear for dandyish tailoring, crushed satin and floral embroidered tea dresses, oversize shades, and sky-high snakeskin platforms with bands of glitter wrapping their soles. A leopard-spot ponyhair trench wasn’t leopard spot at all but his cat’s paw prints. The sense of muchness was cut here and there with brass-buttoned military coats and one knockout dress in black stretch matte jersey with jet crystal embroidery and a midriff cut-out—the sexy, athletic answer to the playful eccentricity elsewhere.
29 November 2018
Michael Kors sees himself as a mood enhancer. It’s gloom and doom everywhere you turn these days, which makes him all the more determined to create joy. Kors finds his joy at the beach, so that was the backdrop and inspiration for his new collection. He booked Pier 17 on the Seaport to set the mood—and wouldn’t you know it?—it was a foggy morning, but artist Christina Zimpel’s colorful installations conjured visions of sunnier days. As a native of Perth, Australia, she knows a thing or two about the subject; her work was so infectious in ended up on some leather totes. The clothes’ vibe was similarly seaside and chill; think rash guard, not avant-garde.The designer and his husband checked out Bora Bora and Tetiaroa earlier this year; Kors said it inspired the first underwater print of his 37-year career. Elsewhere, there were all sorts of nods to the bright days of summer: surf shirts and baja sweaters in cashmere, easy cotton dresses in juicy shades of lime and watermelon, and metallic brocades to wear bare-legged to dinner. For the color-averse, he did a white lace bell-bottom jumpsuit that he described as the love child of Julie Christie and Jane Birkin (what a vision!), and eveningwear that could double as swimwear if the mood struck.At a preview, Kors showed off a pair of sky blue pinwheel corduroys inspired by the pair he picked up working his first sales job at Lothar’s. They didn’t appear to make it onto the runway today. Too bad! A little of that low-key earthiness would not have been remiss. Kors is a global business, but it’s his heartbeat that’s gotta keep it pumping. On that note, consider the canvas totes and cashmere beach-towel wraps stamped with the logo MK Beach Club. Back at the preview, he said that if he ever decided to branch out beyond fashion, he’d open a string of beach clubs at popular resort spots around the world, from Malibu to St. Tropez to Tamarama outside Sydney. It’s a fab idea.
14 September 2018
Michael Kors sees himself as a mood enhancer. It’s gloom and doom everywhere you turn these days, which makes him all the more determined to create joy. Kors finds his joy at the beach, so that was the backdrop and inspiration for his new collection. He booked Pier 17 on the Seaport to set the mood—and wouldn’t you know it?—it was a foggy morning, but artist Christina Zimpel’s colorful installations conjured visions of sunnier days. As a native of Perth, Australia, she knows a thing or two about the subject; her work was so infectious in ended up on some leather totes. The clothes’ vibe was similarly seaside and chill; think rash guard, not avant-garde.The designer and his husband checked out Bora Bora and Tetiaroa earlier this year; Kors said it inspired the first underwater print of his 37-year career. Elsewhere, there were all sorts of nods to the bright days of summer: surf shirts and baja sweaters in cashmere, easy cotton dresses in juicy shades of lime and watermelon, and metallic brocades to wear bare-legged to dinner. For the color-averse, he did a white lace bell-bottom jumpsuit that he described as the love child of Julie Christie and Jane Birkin (what a vision!), and eveningwear that could double as swimwear if the mood struck.At a preview, Kors showed off a pair of sky blue pinwheel corduroys inspired by the pair he picked up working his first sales job at Lothar’s. They didn’t appear to make it onto the runway today. Too bad! A little of that low-key earthiness would not have been remiss. Kors is a global business, but it’s his heartbeat that’s gotta keep it pumping. On that note, consider the canvas totes and cashmere beach-towel wraps stamped with the logo MK Beach Club. Back at the preview, he said that if he ever decided to branch out beyond fashion, he’d open a string of beach clubs at popular resort spots around the world, from Malibu to St. Tropez to Tamarama outside Sydney. It’s a fab idea.
12 September 2018
Michael Kors designed his new Resort collection with his childhood summers at the Catalina Beach Club in Atlantic Beach, New York, a well-to-do strip of sand off the South Shore of Long Island, in mind. He remembers his mom and his aunts at the club bare-legged in brocade, wearing extravagant clothes in a casual way. It was glamleisure about 50 years ahead of schedule.Revisiting and refreshing classic American sportswear is the Kors way and has been since 1981, a fact he reminded us of here with a cashmere baseball jersey emblazoned with19on the front and81on the back. Coming off a Fall collection of prep school grunge, he gave this one a sunny, seaside spin with big, bold turquoise flower prints and black and white marinière stripes representing the two sides of what he described as a “tug of war between the painterly and the graphic.” They got along swimmingly, in fact; Kors doesn’t believe in “difficult” or “challenging” fashion. He’s cognizant of trends—hands-free bags, cork-soled sandals à la Birks. Nonetheless, you go to his presentations expecting not a retinue of the latest It items, but a list of Kors-isms filtered through the season’s themes.The bathing suit that’s not a bathing suit but rather a layering piece for skirts and trousers came in turquoise and violet flowers with cut-outs at the side. The sequin shifts were modeled on color-blocked rash guards, and an athletic skirtsuit was made from bonded black neoprene. On the opulent side of the sportif opulence divide, the hands-down star was a dress that owed much to the Catalina Beach Club. It was a ’60s mod short in silvery brocade boasting a neckline studded with turquoise beads “so you don’t have to pack your jewelry.” He showed it with a hoodie that will receive plenty of attention on its own, in gray cashmere with pull cords made from supersized crystals. We also liked the look of a checked shirtdress breezy from in a breezy crushed georgette and a trapeze in lightweight cotton poplin.
11 June 2018
Can a designer be all things to all women? Michael Kors had fun trying with his Pre-Fall lineup. Like the Fall collection he presented in February, two months after this one (he holds these “transeason” photos until the clothes arrive in stores so they’re news to shoppers; editors saw it back in December), this was a story about unlikely mash-ups that looked unexpectedly right. A baseball tee with a rumba skirt. Preppy stripes with a duchesse silk rose print. A strapless red evening dress with zebra shower slides. Kors might be hard-pressed to make that last one fly—save for among his New York gals, who could work the combo on a pre-party bodega run—but you get the irreverent vibe he was going for.There was just as much diversity in the designer’s silhouettes. Alongside that 1950s red party frock, there were Lisa Taylor-shot-by-Helmut Newton 1970s shirtdresses and baby doll-ish minidresses worn with motorcycle boots that evoked Courtney Love in her grunge-goddess phase. On the more low-key side, he had high-waisted trouser jeans, plaid pants with a perma-wrinkle, and printed silk pj bottoms. Kors has always had his women covered from day to night, but in the past his message has tended to be more consistent. Now, he say he’s taking his cues from women—the Zendayas and Blake Livelys of the world—who dress according to their moods, not by the rules. He seems to be enjoying the exercise.
2 April 2018
Pop hits of the past half-century formed a medley on the Michael Kors soundtrack—everything from Julie Andrews’s “My Favorite Things” to Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind.” The lively sampling was the key to this collection. Kors called it a love letter to individual style.Binx Walton, the beauty from Tennessee, opened in a floral dress, a tartan cape, and leopard-print boots—a mash-up that exemplified the playful formula here. The days of designer diktats are over (indeed, Kors hasn’t been the only designer to say so this season), so he did what any big-picture guy would do: He gave us a little bit of everything. There were grunge plaids and slip dresses, a “Jackie Onassis at Doubleday” camel leather trench, and boyish pairings of Argyle and plaid or Fair Isle and pajama silk. A Margot Tenenbaum tracksuit walked the runway and also appeared in the front row on a luminous Zendaya. No designer can be all things to all people, but Kors did his darndest here. For an industry veteran, he has a very 21st-century savvy about how the fans are the ones who are now in charge.The two biggest bits of news were a collaboration with the illustrator David Downton that yielded a va-va-voom-y hourglass dress painted with women’s portraits, plus a range of leather totes to match, and Kors’s embrace of faux fur. This was a feel-good collection for more reasons than one. At a moment when the issue of casting often trumps clothes themselves, Kors’s show felt effortlessly inclusive in multiple ways. There were unknowns and there were runway vets, twiggy girls and curvy ones, male and female models from all over the globe. Kors sees beauty everywhere—a fitting message for Valentine’s Day.
14 February 2018
Pop hits of the past half-century formed a medley on the Michael Kors soundtrack—everything from Julie Andrews’s “My Favorite Things” to Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind.” The lively sampling was the key to this collection. Kors called it a love letter to individual style.Binx Walton, the beauty from Tennessee, opened in a floral dress, a tartan cape, and leopard-print boots—a mash-up that exemplified the playful formula here. The days of designer diktats are over (indeed, Kors hasn’t been the only designer to say so this season), so he did what any big-picture guy would do: He gave us a little bit of everything. There were grunge plaids and slip dresses, a “Jackie Onassis at Doubleday” camel leather trench, and boyish pairings of Argyle and plaid or Fair Isle and pajama silk. A Margot Tenenbaum tracksuit walked the runway and also appeared in the front row on a luminous Zendaya. No designer can be all things to all people, but Kors did his darndest here. For an industry veteran, he has a very 21st-century savvy about how the fans are the ones who are now in charge.The two biggest bits of news were a collaboration with the illustrator David Downton that yielded a va-va-voom-y hourglass dress painted with women’s portraits, plus a range of leather totes to match, and Kors’s embrace of faux fur. This was a feel-good collection for more reasons than one. At a moment when the issue of casting often trumps clothes themselves, Kors’s show felt effortlessly inclusive in multiple ways. There were unknowns and there were runway vets, twiggy girls and curvy ones, male and female models from all over the globe. Kors sees beauty everywhere—a fitting message for Valentine’s Day.
14 February 2018
To present his Resort collection today, Michael Kors gathered editors at the Whitney Museum, with a view of the Hudson River and New Jersey in the distance. Apologizing for the clouds, he said he chose the location to remind us that we live on an island. Kors is building a new house and has islands on the brain. The subject matter agrees with him. This was a terrific, zippy collection, full of sarongs, strappy maillots, halter dresses, and one sleek embroidered djellaba that, thanks to Kors’s innate sense of polish, will likely see just as much action in the big city as in Bora Bora or the car-less Hydra, two islands he said he’s visited recently.Kors’s tropical prints are more versatile than the next guys’ primarily because of their palette: He used navy, brown, black, and white, with bright lemon yellow options for the extroverts in his audience. By pairing them with solids or boyish pajama stripes, he tempered their typical exuberance further. To adopt Kors speak for a moment—although, let’s face it, nobody gives quotes like MK—this was Tropicália à la tomboy. The femme aspects of the collection charmed equally as much. He’s often observed that no one’s doing laps in his bathing suits—his customers wear his maillots at parties on boats. Riffing on that idea, he made a dress out of swimwear, cutting a strappy jersey column with a sexy cutout at the midriff. Other pieces that qualified for what he described as the “super easy, super glamorous point of the whole collection” included a jumpsuit with wide, asymmetric leg openings that read like a breezy dress, and a floral-print, ankle-length halter dress.
4 October 2017
Michael Kors is never not paying attention to what women wear: in his office, out to dinner, at the theater, on vacation. Especially on vacation. For his new collection, the idea was to bring laid-back beachy vibes to every urbane piece he put on the runway—from the X to the Y—and, while he was at it, to make some essential pieces for his girls’ next island getaway. Here in the city this summer, Kors saw a lot of cut-offs, flip-flops, and girls going pantsless. This show was also a reaction to that: How do you dress for the heat without looking undone, or worse, sloppy?Not that that’s ever really an issue in Kors’s world. This is a designer who, when he decides to do a tie-dye sweatshirt, makes it in multi-ply cashmere (and lines it in cotton, to boot) and throws in a matching cashmere blanket to seal the deal. At the sight of a glow-y Carolyn Murphy in that show-opening first look, who didn’t instantly wish they were on the next flight to Los Angeles, or better yet, flying private like his front row seatmates Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts likely do?Kors worked in a palette of breezy pastels—the colors of the New York season—before graduating to navy, gray, and black; and, in addition to the subtle tie-dying, he devised palm tree–shadow prints in the same breezy spirit. The palm trees covered slip dresses and sarongs, as well as accent pieces that he paired with overscale blazers. It ran the gamut from full-on vacation kit to singular items designed to conjure an out-of-office feeling. And, thanks to the color palette, there was something for nearly every personality type, from the extroverted (see most of the above) to the more minimally inclined (a bias-cut white linen gauze sundress; a silk georgette trench dress; and Mica Argañaraz’s tuxedo jacket, silk blouse, and sequin sarong).Kors was in top form here, and for the record, he’s actually pro flip-flops for next Spring—on one condition: They come in croc (real, not faux!) and they have his name on the sole.
17 September 2017
Michael Kors is never not paying attention to what women wear: in his office, out to dinner, at the theater, on vacation. Especially on vacation. For his new collection, the idea was to bring laid-back beachy vibes to every urbane piece he put on the runway—from the X to the Y—and, while he was at it, to make some essential pieces for his girls’ next island getaway. Here in the city this summer, Kors saw a lot of cut-offs, flip-flops, and girls going pantsless. This show was also a reaction to that: How do you dress for the heat without looking undone, or worse, sloppy?Not that that’s ever really an issue in Kors’s world. This is a designer who, when he decides to do a tie-dye sweatshirt, makes it in multi-ply cashmere (and lines it in cotton, to boot) and throws in a matching cashmere blanket to seal the deal. At the sight of a glow-y Carolyn Murphy in that show-opening first look, who didn’t instantly wish they were on the next flight to Los Angeles, or better yet, flying private like his front row seatmates Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts likely do?Kors worked in a palette of breezy pastels—the colors of the New York season—before graduating to navy, gray, and black; and, in addition to the subtle tie-dying, he devised palm tree–shadow prints in the same breezy spirit. The palm trees covered slip dresses and sarongs, as well as accent pieces that he paired with overscale blazers. It ran the gamut from full-on vacation kit to singular items designed to conjure an out-of-office feeling. And, thanks to the color palette, there was something for nearly every personality type, from the extroverted (see most of the above) to the more minimally inclined (a bias-cut white linen gauze sundress; a silk georgette trench dress; and Mica Argañaraz’s tuxedo jacket, silk blouse, and sequin sarong).Kors was in top form here, and for the record, he’s actually pro flip-flops for next Spring—on one condition: They come in croc (real, not faux!) and they have his name on the sole.
13 September 2017
Madonna. Grace Jones. Dianne Brill. Nancy Reagan! The namesMichael Korswas checking at his presentation this morning were a giveaway. After working a 1940s-by-way-of-the-’80s theme for Spring, he kept his influences strictly ’80s for Pre-Fall. Among the items and ideas that he lifted and manipulated for 2017 are strong shoulders on otherwise softly structured pantsuits, exposed bras and leotards under sweetheart neckline dresses, pinstripes (think Madge circa “Express Yourself”), and lots of chain, stud, and safety pin detailing.The ’80s are a time period that Kors knows firsthand, having launched his own brand here in New York in 1981. Maybe that’s why his reinterpretations didn’t feel nostalgic or exaggeratedly gimmicky as they have in the hands of other designers lately. He kept the palette clean (white, black, and red) and the angles sharp. Making a play for “the comeback of the suit,” he showed military-inspired tailoring in black and red trimmed with shiny silver buttons. One of the highlights of the lineup was a narrowly cut black dress with “the feeling of suiting,” thanks to its built-up shoulders, plunging U-shaped neckline, and tapered waist.As he pointed out at the beginning of the presentation, Pre-Fall makes up 65 to 70 percent of the Fall buy. In keeping with those stats, this was a wide-ranging offering with what he calls “September fashion show coats,” including an interesting style in a cracked resin rubberized print, and lots of thought on sweater dressing (a chunky ribbed knit with zip detail at the hem, asymmetrically cut cashmeres, and an evening sweater crosshatched with fine chains). Kors pointed to a silver fringed and sequined stretch tulle gown, one of many sparkling evening options, and said it had Rihanna’s name all over it. “She’d wear it to lunch,” he said. A rule-breaker in the mold of Madonna et al.
2 December 2016
Edie Campbell, Ashley Graham, Joan Smalls, Kendall Jenner. There are as many different kinds of sexy as there were women on Michael Kors’s runway today. What unites them, if you ask the designer, is their confidence. Kors didn’t address the political situation head-on here the way he did last September—inviting Rufus Wainwright to perform, endorsing Hillary Clinton—but he’s always designed for women who lead. And with this diverse cast he seemed to be making an implied point: We are stronger together.Strength was an essential part of his Fall message, alongside seduction. Those are clichéd notions, perhaps, but Kors approached them in less-than-predictable ways. There was nary a traditional power suit in sight, for example, not even on the dudes. His approach to tailoring was more playful—deconstructed, if not quite truly experimental. Jackets came with rounded shoulders and cocooning proportions, or the sleeves were chopped off above the biceps; skirts were tulip shaped. Kors said it was crucial to build an argument to buy into every single piece, the thinking being that his customer hardly needs a new camel coat or a black peacoat. He added clever slits to the pockets of the former, to keep it firmly in place on the shoulders and the arms free. As for the latter, let’s call it a peacoat with a party in back, elaborately decorated as it was with silver leopard embroidery. Insiders will be queuing up to buy the olive green taffeta trench, button-down, and pleated and cropped pants—great color, great proportions.About seduction. Kors leaned hard, maybe too hard, on animal prints, and the plunging blouses and sarong skirts didn’t do enough to flatter their wearers. An unbuttoned black button-up and blackplongéleather midi skirt looked neater and fresher. Ditto the long-sleeved little black dresses in sequins swirling with silk fringe. Jenner’s strapless finale number gets our vote for party dress of the week.
15 February 2017
Michael Kors’s crisscross strap maillot turned up on at least two June issues of fashion magazines. Chalk it up to all the traveling he does; the designer has a way with getaway clothes. His Resort presentations tend to be a delight, lots of good pieces and lots of clever talk about them. Take the way he described a little cocktail shaker of a party dress—“Destination: dancing on a table”—or his mink coat and matching mink backpack, calling it “the new twinset.” The collection was as diverse as we’ve come to expect from Resort, a season that bridges cold-weather outerwear, holiday party attire, office-ready separates, and true getaway gear. Kors’s new must-have suit is a black-and-white polka-dot tank with a big cut-out in the center.As all-categories-for-all-climes as it was, the lineup was unified by a graphic sharpness. Black-and-white polka-dot pieces gave off a mod ’60s vibe, thanks in no small part to the matching chunky-heeled Mary Janes he paired with many of the looks. Alternatively, there were furry mukluks, and apropos of that, here’s another Kors-ism: “She definitely has a DHL number to ship her shoes.” Marinière and regatta stripes, meanwhile, had a crisp appeal, whether they turned up on a cashmere sweater or an intarsia mink. Kors knows his girls can’t resist a stripe, so they also came in sequins on party dresses short and long.
7 June 2016
Designers left and right this week have been talking about the uplifting nature of fashion, but nobody’s left us feeling quite as uplifted asMichael Kors. With his old pal Rufus Wainwright on the mic, crooning Judy Garland’s “Get Happy,” the crowd, which included Sienna Miller and Emily Blunt, was fairly bopping in its seats.The clothes matched the upbeat mood of the music. Kors gave his signature feminine/masculine plot line a ’40s-by-way-of-the-‘80s twist, conjuring “dames” (his word) from Barbara Stanwyck and Katharine Hepburn, to Kim Basinger. “They were women,” he said backstage, “who were very provocative, very flirty, but also in control.” On the one hand, he had little nipped-waist dresses and peephole-neck jumpsuits in vivid floral prints. And on the other: belted pant suits, a twill trench, and boyish argyle knits. Colors were juicy, like grapefruit pink and lime green, or they were streamlined black, white, and navy. Kors is an equal opportunity optimist, spreading his glass-half-full perspective worldwide. He sent out two versions of a “Love” sweater, a slouchy one for girls, and a snug one for boys; the former is one of a handful of items available for sale now. Among the others was a plunge-front, ruffle-sleeved little black dress—again that dichotomy.Love wasn’t Kors’s only message. Before Wainwright broke into “Get Happy,” he declared, “I’m with her,” and Hillary got a shout-out midway through. Do politics and fashion mix? That’s another subject designers have wrestled with this week, with some expressions feeling perhaps too explicit (Opening Ceremony) and others not explicit enough (Yeezy). Wainwright’s off-handed, but deeply felt plug was another thing about this show that felt just right.
14 September 2016
It’s a rare occasion you seeMichael Korsout of his trusty New Balance sneakers. Even at this year’sMet Galahe wore glorified trainers with metallic silver uppers and white rubber soles. The point is: Kors appreciates sporty comfort, a quality in no short supply in his new men’s collection for Spring. It started from the ground up, where models wore chunky slip-on croc sneakers or lace-up oxfords with rugged soles.That groundwork established, Kors riffed on a nautical theme, turning out a navy and nutmeg brownmarinière-stripe sweater worn with full-legged “Gene Kelly” white pants, or pairing a white peacoat in linen sateen with matching loose-fit shorts. That peacoat aside, most of the outerwear had a utilitarian aspect. Trenches came with practical hoods, and the dressier balmacaans sported industrial snaps. The intended effect: unstudied, unfussy elegance. Suits were untraditional, in the sense that they were cut in a papery silk cotton poplin that Kors likened to Windbreaker fabric.His guys might prove a little gun-shy when it comes to the polka dots and pindots, although the patterns provided a nice bit of synergy with the designer’s Pre-Spring women’s collection. The nautical stripes will be a safer bet; in fact they looked good enough that Kors’s gals are likely to swipe them from the men’s department. Us ladies like our sporty comfort, too.
12 July 2016
Today marksMichael Kors’s 35th Fall show, but he’s not feeling nostalgic. He has been in the biz long enough to understand that all it’s really about is change. Why not embrace it? Kors is one of the growing number of designers here and in Europe to hop on the see now, buy now train. In his lively presentation this morning, there were select ready-to-wear clothes, shoes, and bags that you could purchase at his Madison Avenue flagship and on michaelkors.com today. “It’s an experiment,” he said backstage. That’s the attitude he brought to the new collection: “I like bare legs in winter; I like night for day. I likeAlexa Chungmixing with Nan Kempner. It’s about the interesting mix.”The first look summed up what he was getting at: wool melton peacoat, creamy silk georgette blouse, charcoal cashmere pullover—so far, so Kors. But scan down, and there were ostrich plumes embroidered below the knees of the jeans. “Put a feather on it” was a mini mantra of this flirty show; they turned up in other unlikely places (fringing the pockets of a tweed coat) and more expected ones, such as the skirts of short cocktail dresses and a pair of sequined party pants. Fall also found the designer embracing Peter Pan–collar dolly-bird dresses, head-to-handbag wisteria separates, and a just-this-side-of-ditzy outfit that combined an acid green sheepskin jacket, a baby blue cable-knit, a flowery bow-front shirt, and an A-line sailor skirt.Fashion has lately swung in a decorated, retro-quirky direction, far from the minimalist territory that the designer has put his stamp on over the past three decades. You can’t fight change, but inevitably, the best looks were the ones where Kors was at his Kors-iest. Take Mica Arganaraz’s black sequined plunge-front, streamer-hemmed dress. Streamlined, American, sexy.
17 February 2016
Today’s torrential rain, out of the ordinary as it is for early February, was appropriate forMichael Kors’s men’s presentation. The designer had performancewear on his mind for Fall. He touted a “membrane-backed wool” that he used for skinny trousers, unstructured suit jackets, and actual outerwear as windproof, cooling, and virtually waterproof, too. It could’ve been a boon to editors and buyers shuttling back and forth across the city for the third day of New York’s men’s collections.The overall vibe of the week has been fairly utilitarian so far, in contrast to the dandified look of so many European runways. Cast your eye over the shows here and you see a lot of black and even more gray. That held true for Kors, but where streetwear has dominated other collections, Kors gave his athletic silhouettes more of an Alpine spin. We thought we’d seen every riff on the puffer jacket known to woman or man, but the designer’s puffer pants looked like a genuine first to us. Otherwise, his ski pants were snug and body-conscious—the macho man’s answer to ladies’ athleisure leggings.Ribbed cashmere sweatpants proved a welcome counterpoint to all that stretch wool. Here’s hoping that Kors considers including some in his women’s show two weeks from now.
3 February 2016
Michael Kors’s business is global. As he talked his way through the looks in his new Pre-Fall collection, he referenced the smart coats he saw on the street on a recent trip to Shanghai, the over-the-top MKC pieces that women are buying in “capitals of crazy” like Cannes and Forte de Marmi, and the dress code requirements of next May’sCostume Institute Gala. For a designer, that’s a fairly large brief.With all that ground to cover, Kors says he approaches design this way: “She’s got to fall in love.” That means he imbued his clothes and accessories with surprising, pleasing details, from a simple blush pink cashmere V-neck that turned to reveal draped slits in back and another fine gauge knit with slit sleeves that created a cape-like effect to a little black dress with a clear plastic hem encrusted with huge crystals. The bags come with small, zipped slots to slip your phone into.Flowers were a recurring motif, and he found novel ways to treat them, be it the silhouetted white-on pink-floral of an intarsia mink coat or the army green-on-black “floraflage” pattern of a silk duchesse boyfriend anorak. That coat and the lace-trimmed slip it was tossed over, along with the utility pants elsewhere in the collection, conjured images of a 1990s Stella Tennant, who Kors name-checked at the beginning of the presentation. His other muses?Kate Moss(an athletic, racerback gown) and Audrey Hepburn inTwo for the Road(a short, ’60s-ish dress covered with ostrich plumes). Like we said: a lot of ground, and well-done, too.
4 December 2015
AtMichael Kors Collection, Spring 2016 had a curious but possibly telling dichotomy running through it—minimal androgyny in neutrals on the one hand and flowery womanliness in pretty colors on the other. In a way, it looked as if two collections had been chopped up and merged together, so that, to quote from the show notes, you had, for example, Lisa wearing Look 13, “white linen gauze duster, white tissue linen tank, white linen gauze utility pant,” followed by Lindsey in Look 14, a “lapis poppy-print georgette dress with frayed floral embroidery.”Michael Korsis one of the great American storytellers of New York fashion, and it scarcely needs to be reiterated that his narrative about a serene, discreetly moneyed, and always optimistic lifestyle is enthusiastically (and lucratively) received far beyond the United States. Would those followers be puzzled by the two strands running through this show? Unlikely, for both come from the traditional American playbook—stripped-down-’90s, utilitarian, go-to-work tailoring, and decorative dresses for entertaining and special occasions. In other words, this was a collection that covered the social waterfront, with everything from Kors’s classic tan suede trenches and billowy poet-sleeved blouses with drawstring necklines to an evening shirtdress with vertically inserted strips of sheer Chantilly lace, all of which looked good.But perhaps the underlying contrasts between those two aesthetics is also an unconscious reflection of two rival themes that have emerged this week at the New York shows—the celebration of cleaned-up grunge-era style, which is everywhere, and the newer backlash toward sophisticated, pulled-together feminine dressing we’ve seen fromPeter CoppingatOscar de la Renta. As it happens, with his poppy prints and fil coupe fabrics, Kors was on almost exactly the same page as Copping, so no matter how his customer feels like playing it come next season, Kors has her covered.
16 September 2015
"Island life" was the term Michael Kors used at his Spring '16 menswear presentation this morning. Not just Capri and Catalina, but also Manhattan. "People in the city are dressing down, and they're more polished on vacation," said the designer. We don't know for sure about Capri, but he definitely got the New York City part of the equation right. His audience was filled with shorts-sporting, sandal-wearing editors; one dude in particular stood out in a pair of highlighter pink and orange Vans-style kicks. You felt badly for the retailers sweating in their starchy suits.That was the general gist of the collection: Kors took the starch out. A white suit was 100 percent intentionally rumpled, so, he explained, "you can pull it out of your duffel bag and not go crazy." Striped seersucker suits, meanwhile, came with drawstring-waist pants that had the ease of pajamas. Even a double-breasted, pinstriped two-piecer was dressed down with Teva-style athletic sandals. A wide range of knits kept the casual vibes going; the heather gray ribbed-knit Henley looked particularly appealing with khaki suede cargo pants. Kors also wants to get guys into a hybrid-style garment that is one part hooded sweater, another part deconstructed jacket. Just don't call it a "swacket." He prefers the term "swoodie."
15 July 2015
After a Fall collection of mostly tonal neutrals and super-tony vibes, Resort found Michael Kors thinking along much more graphic lines. That much was clear from Look 1, a mink intarsia balmacaan in a repeating hexagon pattern that Kors, tongue firmly planted in cheek, called "your basic winter coat." There was nothing basic about the new lineup, despite its sleek, clean silhouettes. Vivid shades of coral and geranium were color-blocked on a knife-pleat dress. Large checks met small checks on shirt and skirt combos designed to look like a single piece. And even his new favorite neutral, a reddish brown he's calling caramel, was bright.Kors cited Art Deco, but we saw mod proportions in the narrow, slightly elongated blazers and cropped, flared pants. The cut of the tailoring felt of-the-moment without going too far out on a limb for his all-American brand. Lisa Taylor with legs akimbo in that famous Helmut Newton shot—"the image is frozen in my mind," Kors said—was the muse for a scarf-print shirt unbuttoned down to there and a matching skirt with a hip-high slit. We can think of scads of girls who will be eager to channel that look. Everybody else will be after the black sequined mesh evenings flares. They echoed the "translucent, not transparent" metallic sequined mesh jumpsuit Gigi Hadid killed it in at the CFDA Awards last night.
2 June 2015
Damn, he's good. You walked out of Michael Kors' show this morning buzzing, and it wasn't just Florence + The Machine's hit "The Dog Days Are Over" producing that sensation. His new Fall lineup landed smack-dab in the middle of his sweet spot: opulent as all get-out, yet true to the all-American, unfussy, and optimistic spirit on which the company was built. Fur has been all over the runways this week, but it's been a Kors staple for ages. He showed the kids how it's done with the ombré-striped fox bathrobe Natasha Poly strutted out in to kick things off. A brown mink coat sheared into a damask pattern was significantly less extravagant but still special. Fox turned up as an accent on a lot of other looks, as well, elevating not just the crisp, neatly tailored pieces in menswear checks, but also the chunky knits.Kors liked the idea of playing opposites off each other this season. So feathers embroidered in the shape of flowers decorated a sheath in humble tweed bouclé; a guncheck wool trench topped a glittering lace dress; and simple, straightforward men's pajamas were black-tie-ready thanks to the addition of crystal paisley embellishments. Bias-cut dresses in black silk or gold fil coupe with an elegant, 1930s-ish vibe shared the runway with military great coats in slouched-on oversize proportions. One of the show's strongest looks was an evening dress tailored on top like a double-breasted tuxedo. This was a broad, familiar offering, and Kors was in command of it all.For Tim Blanks' take on Michael Kors, watch this video.
18 February 2015
"Extreme hybrid" was Michael Kors' mantra for his Fall '15 menswear collection, where the line between dressed up and casual was imperceptible. Gray suiting in wool herringbone was overprinted with monotone camo and shrunken to fit the way guys wear T-shirts and jeans. Cashmere-blend trousers were cinched at the waist with a drawstring and slim enough to fit over pointy-toe Chelsea boots. Even geographic borders were blurred—the "L.A. coat," as Kors called it, was a trim olive fishtail with a snap-off fur hood you can remove when your flight from JFK lands at LAX. Boots came in two flavors, the aforementioned pointy and not pointy, and the expanded range of bags and accessories included a croc-print embossed leather backpack, because, as Kors said, who doesn't need a hint of luxury? The color palette didn't stray too far from gray and black, with some olive, camel, navy, and ivory, and it doesn't take a fashion expert to determine that sticking with what works is one way to achieve massive success, as Kors has.Today the designer opens his largest store in the world in Soho. The flagship will house the entire men's collection—the first time it has ever been available at a Michael Kors store. "It's a great platform for the company to build upon its already successful men's business," CEO John D. Idol said in a statement. That's a pretty hefty cosign for a menswear offering from a publicly traded company, and a reminder that menswear is serious business. As Kors said of his Fall lineup: "No high jinks."
28 January 2015
All week long designers have been touting the transitional nature of their Pre-Fall collections. Leave it to Michael Kors to give the idea a clever name; "from bikinis to boots" was how he described his lineup. True to his word, his clothes spanned seasons: Bare, breezy dresses mingled with a Mongolian lamb-lined patent coat, and hot on the heels of a jaguar mink jacket came a sailor-stripe lace tunic and lace pants. An all-American color palette of red, blue, white, black, and camel gave the collection an appealing crispness; ditto the graphic stripes, polka dots, and bows (a first for the designer). Kors mentioned three different women as muses: Baby Jane Holzer, Winona Ryder, and Taylor Swift. An eclectic list, to be sure, and a nod perhaps to Kors' all-ages clientele. But it gave him an excuse to riff on 1960s shapes like a mod, double-breasted coat and cropped pants, as well as more modern ones, such as his tuxedo-track pant hybrids. "Tabletop dressing" is a concept as old as Holzer, but Kors resurrected the term here to describe a fabulous little black dress with a halter collar. "It's all about the neckline," he said. Other standouts included a plonge leather jean jacket worn with a stripey knit and a dark denim skirt, and a sequined rugby and deep cuff jeans that would get the Taylor Swift seal of approval.
5 December 2014
Michael Kors doesn't have a dark side. Or if he does, he's never cared to show it on the runway. You can count on upbeat music, smiling girls, and enough celebrity wattage (in this case, Jessica Chastain, Jada Pinkett Smith, Olivia Munn, and Mary J. Blige) to light up a room—not that Spring Studios needed any help, with the morning sun pouring through its wall-to-wall windows.The new Spring collection delivered on Kors' sunny reputation, and then some. Daffodils, wisteria, and geraniums were picked out in sequins on tulle dancer skirts, embroidered on a strappy sundress, or printed on a breezy natural linen skirt suit. Gingham, which we've been seeing everywhere, was paired with marinière stripes. And for every navy outfit, there was another in bright yellow.Happy yet? The flower-averse needn't worry: Kors had plenty on offer here that registered in a lower key. Simplicity is trending; shirt-and-skirt combos are one of the week's dominant motifs on the runways and off. This is a good moment to be Michael Kors. As the king of American sportswear, he excels at such things. We're betting a plaid taffeta button-down tucked into a black wool gabardine sarong will be one of the show's most popular outfits. Another nice look: a crisp white poplin shirt with French cuffs that inched past the fingertips, worn with a hands-in-the-pockets full black silk mikado skirt. Show us a girl who didn't light up at the sight of that one.
10 September 2014
It's tempting to use the hybrid phrase "normkors," and the designer couldn't resist doing just that when presenting his Spring 2015 men's collection. It was fitting, not just because the clothes mixed classic American styles with Michael Kors' vision of global luxury, but because riffs on hybridization ran throughout the collection."Amalfi Americano" was the theme and that cultural mash-up found its way into almost every look. A sharply cut three-button suit was punched up by polished denim, sneakers became "snespadrilles" thanks to a rope detail on the sole. Fabrics weren't what they seemed—a hemp-linen anorak was gessoed for a less rigid waterproof finish. Sharkskin was rendered from cotton and mohair. The ultimate normkors look, a riff on a T-shirt-and-jeans look, was done with 8-ounce denim trousers and a linen T-shirt sweater. If anything, the collection was a bit heavy on the norm and light on the Kors. Subdued plaids failed to pop, and striped knits didn't stand out from other similar offerings in the mall. But even the most basic pieces, like the double-pleated pants and zip-up blouson, had an undeniable populist appeal.Sandals and white linen shorts suit notwithstanding, Kors' Spring collection was a mostly seasonless affair. That's a good business decision—"It's January when we ship it," Kors remarked—and it affords a glimpse at the kind of smart, consumer-first thinking behind his vision of comfortable luxury. It's not for nothing that he's one of fashion's few designer billionaires.
8 July 2014
Before his Resort presentation got under way today, Michael Kors announced that it's one of his favorite seasons to design. That didn't surprise anyone who was in the room with him. He had a witty one-liner for nearly every one of the thirty-eight looks in the new collection. A cashmere and silk Baja pullover worn with a floor-length gauze maxi skirt? It was designed "for food shopping in Malibu." And a washed gabardine field jacket lined neckline to hem in sable? "The way we get people in Bushwick to wear fur." He even coined a new term. You've heard of #normcore, yes? Well, worn with a cotton pullover and a flippy skirt, that field jacket was #normkors.Monologuing aside, Resort found Kors in peak form, revisiting and reworking the masculine/feminine dichotomy that has enlivened his last two runway shows. On the tomboyish side there were cargo pants in easy-to-pack crushed cotton with a touch of sateen, trenchcoat/cape hybrids (slip your arms into the sleeves or through slits in the side pockets), and the best-looking utility anorak of the season so far in crushed black satin with a fox fur lining. On the romantic side: ruffled LBDs, floral print silk charmeuse and chiffon whipped up into flirty dresses, and overdyed shearlings in shades of wisteria and oleander pink. What the really winning thing was about the collection was just how much ground it covered. And we haven't even gotten to the tie-dye leather bell-bottoms or the space-dye sweater and matching scarf yet. Another one of Kors' witticisms: "It shouldn't be called Resort, it should be called Destinations." As in, "Is your destination work? Is it Gstaad? Phuket?" Kors has got you fabulously covered.
4 June 2014
The camera guys were making a fuss over Blake Lively and Michael Douglas—they both looked great in the front row. But Hollywood star power or no, all anyone could talk about before the Michael Kors show was the news last week that thanks to his soaring stock price, the designer is now a billionaire. That kind of fortune could de-incentivize even the most ambitious type. Not Kors. The last couple of collections, he's just gotten better and better.In some ways, Fall looked like an evolution of his Spring show. Easy printed dresses cinched with a leather belt, simple cotton shirts tucked into unpretentious A-line skirts, a chunky cardigan over a little slip of a dress—they all had encore performances here. That's no criticism; too much of a good thing is wonderful. But Kors has been around long enough to know that he can't repeat himself and get away with it. And so he mixed in a little Big Sur with the Big City. If Meryl Streep circa the late seventies was last season's muse, here it looked like he could've been channeling Stevie Nicks. Sleeves were billowier, the fil coupe fabrics were more shimmery, and the furs had just a touch more shag. And there were miles and miles of suede fringe, which he used quite convincingly for daytime. A skirt draped from chocolate brown fringe looked fantastic with an ombré Aran pullover, and the fawn-colored version he paired with a hand-knit sweater and wool melton men's coat was a contender for the look of the show.Following on from his men's presentation last month, which was long on ten-ply beanies and long johns, Kors tossed in some deluxe cashmere sweats. That's the billionaire talking. We're sold.
11 February 2014
"There's not a waistband in any of the looks," Michael Kors said by way of preface to his Fall lineup. Those waited outside, in the sales showroom. When the collection came from the factories, the pieces Kors gravitated to were the sweats and track pants, all in luxurious fabrications—double-faced cashmere, suede, suiting flannel—and all with drawstring waists. That gives you an idea of the bet he's making on ease. ("And we had so many fabulous belts…" he said wistfully afterward.)He was reacting, he said, to the twin nightmares of business-formal overdressing and casual Fridays. He combined both into what he called "Big Sur meets Big City." Baja sweaters and beanies abounded. There were suit fabrics and tailored jackets, but softened into something more like pajamas than power suits. A representative look paired crinkled flannel track pants with a longer, three-button jacket, untucked shirt, mohair pullover, and sandals. "It's the crushing of Wall Street," Kors said gleefully.That's an odd way for a man behind the most blockbuster fashion IPO in memory to repay Wall Street, but his bankers may be the only people able to afford ten-ply cashmere long johns. If the collection doesn't portend the demise of the suit, it does suggest Kors has shrugged off some of the self-consciousness of his last collection for a glamorous ease that seems closer to his heart. Piece after piece was desirable, even when faintly ridiculous: cashmere sweats, suede joggers. "I have a feeling someone in Dubai will actually work out in these," Kors said. Workout-ready or no, one major retailer exiting the presentation confirmed that luxury loungewear is a salable and growing category.
29 January 2014
We could tell you how Michael Kors arrived at tomboy glamour. It has something to do with his distaste for the term Pre-Fall, the increasing irrelevance of seasons in general, and the realization that a boy's wardrobe is seasonless—just the thing for clothes that arrive in stores in May and linger through November. But what does it matter when the clothes in question look this good?He opened with a double-breasted camel coat, an oversize blue shirt, and slouchy yet tailored gray pants, worn with crocodile sneakers, a first for the label. Menswear vibe established, he started riffing: embroidering sky-blue chinos with rhinestones in a paisley motif, accessorizing a foulard-print pantsuit with matching loafers and zip pouches, morphing a rep scarf into a pleated skirt, and cutting a black-and-white houndstooth fabric into a strapless dress. The look that best captured the collection's feminine swagger was a cashgora robe coat in fawn (a light brown), tossed over a black cashmere sweater and full-leg scarlet trousers. The flat shoes were key. He even believes in them for evening. A gorgeous black sequined dress over-embroidered in crystals was shown with shiny black oxfords.Kors has a new name for Pre-Fall. He's calling it "trans." We're not sure that's a moniker that will stick, but there's no doubting that these clothes will.
12 December 2013
When he's good, he's good. Michael Kors sent out a beautiful collection of real-world clothes today that had women in the crowd making mental shopping lists. "A softer attitude…the juxtaposition of sportif and romantic…sharply tailored meets soft and fluid," were some of his notes. The clothes had echoes of the forties (think Kate Hepburn in a trench and full trousers) and the seventies (Meryl Streep circaKramer vs. Kramer), but this is one case where looking back didn't produce retro results.Kors opened with breezy white linen daywear for the girls and the boys. For the clients who can't escape the city, he proposed banker's-stripe button-downs and khaki skirts or a smart brown pleated dress with python detailing. His coats, predictably, looked great; he understands the power of an entrance, not just at a party, but also at the office. For the gals who do get away, the summery offerings ranged from leaf-print separates (the best in tan and lawn green) to pinup-girl bikinis. All of it had a confident American ease.The surprise here was how much of the collection seemed designed for cold weather: the fox chubby, a mohair cardigan, and some very clever cashmere shrugs that reversed to sable. But Kors is on to something. After all, these clothes start landing in stores shortly after the new year, and more and more, thanks partly to the Internet, designer shoppers are learning to buy in season. A gorgeous suede coat for a January or February pick-me-up? Yes, please.
10 September 2013
The thing about showing menswear during New York fashion week is that by September, the collections—like their European counterparts—have already been sold. Stirrings to create a men's-only week (or weeklet) in the summer have, so far, come to naught. "Quite frankly, it drives the stores insane," said Michael Kors, who, like many of his compatriots, is opting off the runway and showing his menswear to editors and the industry at the same time as it sells—which is to say, now. Men's will come off the formerly coed MK runway in September, save for a few male-model "dates" to keep things flirty.Giving the collection its own arena seems to have allowed Kors to ratchet up the fashion quotient. All-American sportswear might still be his bread and butter, but styled separately, the Spring line took on a more forward-looking elegance and seemed closer in line with the designer collections shown in Europe. Kors spoke of the idea of convergence and things blending: upscaling the casual, downscaling the luxe. That meant, in practice, that all of his suiting fabrics came pre-wrinkled, like pajamas, while sportier pieces, such as a white anorak, appeared in glove leather. To arrive at a look, he mashed up three of the collection's guiding spirits: Cary Grant, David Bowie, and Ryan Gosling—epitomes (to varying degrees) of masculine elegance. The spirit of the first two was most apparent. There was a vintage forties feel to the new silhouettes, which emphasized higher-waisted, pleated trousers with fuller legs.Never one to waste a soapbox, Kors used his mini presentations to inveigh against menswear's present sins, as he sees them. "This is my anti-Bieber moment," he said, gesturing at a chino that sat at the natural waist. "It's one thing low-rise, another thing bare-assed. We're teaching men they have a waist." Likewise, his seventies-inflected double-breasted blazer with its giant lapels: "A DB for an entire generation of men who have never worn one."That might highlight the odd position Kors finds himself in: poised between the American shopper and the high-fashion consumer. One might be in need of instruction, the other has presumably been wearing double-breasteds for some time. If showing in tandem with the European shows plays up the precariousness of that balance, it nevertheless gave Kors more opportunity than usual to show off his goods.
The best of them were the most Kors-ian: a chunky knit of his own favorite kind, now in summer-friendly silk/linen; a forties-style bomber kept slim by an elastic waist at the back; and a series of glazed linen cargo pants that effectively gave a military staple a bit of finesse.
9 July 2013
"You all know I love a resort," Michael Kors told the crowd of editors and retailers who gathered in his Forty-second Street showroom yesterday. This year, though, Kors has skipped the beach and used a recent trip to Palm Springs for inspiration. Sunnylands, the historic Annenberg estate in Rancho Mirage, and Bob Hope's former residence, which is currently on the market ("A bit too steep for us," Kors laughed), provided the backdrop for his twenty-first-century update of seventies lines. The piece that will land in magazine shoots is a leather shift-dress riff on YSL's famous Saharienne; Kors' laces come in shiny gold chain. But there was plenty here with more everyday appeal, including sleekly well-cut flares that grazed the bottom of the models' platform wedges, and many convincing takes on the decade's midi-length skirt. Our favorite was black with metal lacing below the waistband and worn with a sleeveless black bodysuit.Kors isn't the first designer to explain that Resort, given the amount of time the clothes stay on the selling floors, has to be many things to many people. In the mix was everything from cutout maillots—"The weirder the better," he said of his bathing suits' success at retail—to "front row in February" coats. Pulling it all together were the leopard and giraffe prints, and the simple color palette—just white, black, suntan, pool blue, and geranium pink. "You can't have a Slim Aarons picture without geraniums," Kors joked. You also can't have an Aarons shot without a caftan. Kors did his for after-dark in ocelot-print-embroidered nude tulle with wispy sleeves long enough to graze the patio.
2 June 2013
"You are fast-paced, athletic, and chic. You race all over from the Lower East to the Upper East Side…Make them die with envy!" Those were the notes for the models backstage at Michael Kors' show this morning. The designer sometimes takes us on a trip to Aspen or New England for Fall. This season he stayed in town, with somewhat mixed results.Feeling urban and sporty, he lifted taxicab yellow and caution orange from the New York streets and juxtaposed them with plenty of the city girl's go-to black. Many of the tailored pieces seemed built for speed with rounded shoulders and aerodynamic double-face construction; black patent trim and taped seams evoked the world of car racing or maybe scuba. Goggles added to that feeling.Mixing his metaphors, Kors also threw in all sorts of camouflage for the girls and the boys, most luxuriously in multicolor mink. That'll get you noticed on the sidewalk. Still, he was most convincing when he played it low-key. Plenty of urban warriors at the show would kill for his charcoal gray wool melton overcoat and the pantsuit shown underneath it. A plonge leather cropped jacket and zipped-slit pencil skirt would really take girls places. Same goes for the designer's clingy ribbed knits.Kors' big idea for after dark, a fitted minidress with a peplum overskirt that extended all the way to the floor in back, is a look that's been gaining traction since the Dior Couture show last July. They weren't bad in those primary colors. But why not one or two of his signature, sleek stretch jersey tank dresses? With his sporty theme, those would've been a no-brainer.
12 February 2013
Michael Kors has never been shy about his affection for pop culture. During his pre-fall presentation today, he announced his favorite new TV show isKiller Karaokeand reported that he knows of aspiring celebrities who buy dresses that A-listers have been seen in so they can be pictured alongside them on the tabloids' "Who Wore It Better?" pages. Sounds like a juicy story to us.Apropos of his pre-fall collection, he said he's waiting with bated breath for Scarlett Johansson's upcoming reprise of the role Elizabeth Taylor made famous:Cat on a Hot Tin Roof's Maggie the Cat. The Broadway revival is set for this winter. (No, we didn't get a Lindsay Lohan joke.) There was a strong 1950s vibe at play in the new collection: strapless sheaths belted high on the waist, off-the-shoulder starlet sweaters worn with the narrowest of black plongé leather pencil skirts, a bouclé coat with a generous mink collar tossed over an hourglass dress in guipure lace. A black cashmere sweater, fuchsia tweed skirt, and bright pink mink stole was "Rizzo with good taste and a black American Express card."Retro accessories like white leather gloves and matching pumps and clutches, along with the odd pouf skirt, edged the lineup into costume at times, but Kors answered almost every throwback with a modern proposition. A bonded plongé leather motorcycle jacket was up-to-the-minute chic. Outerwear, in general, was a strength. Rose dévoré elevated an otherwise humble peacoat and a nude satin trench could solve your next evening coat crisis. That one has ScarJo's name all over it.
2 December 2012
Rugby stripes, bold blocks of color, digital prints of clouds and pools, hints of the mod 1960s. The words Michael Kors used for his Spring show were "geometric glamour." The collection had a crisp look and feel, for sure; what it lacked was enough of Kors' trademark sizzle.With Marc Jacobs taking his own spin through the sixties and stripes getting major play on the Tommy Hilfiger and Belstaff runways, this lineup put Kors squarely in the center of things this season. That's a point in his favor. So are covetable items like a one-piece tank suit with zips on the sides, a white plonge leather shirtdress with gold snap closures, and trim coats in primary brights. A men's chesterfield put smiles on the faces in the front row close enough to see that it was made from terry cloth.Overall, though, there weren't enough of those sit-up-and-take-notice moments. Until the end, that is, when Karlie Kloss slinked down the runway in a black double-face crepe dress with a cutout harness bodice. That girl knows how to sizzle.
11 September 2012
Michael Kors is a big fan of Resort. "It's one of the most fun seasons to work on. Every year, it's 'Find me a new place,' " he said at his showroom presentation today. This time around, Turkey served. The designer just opened three new stores in Istanbul, where, he reports, the shopping is divine.Ikat motifs were reproduced in sumptuous black and gold shantung made into a coat, bell-shaped shift, and capri pants. And an agate—one of several stones he picked up in the markets there—informed the swirling cinnamon hue of a draped column dress and a popover top and matching short shorts. Bejeweled was the buzzword. The collars of brocade jackets and the bodice of a gold lamé gown were smothered in studs and crystals, and the gold chains of the models' flat sandals faintly jingled as they walked.Opulent minimalism was how Kors described the collection. But if opulence came out ahead on the aforementioned pieces, minimalism got its due, too. An emerald green silk pajama set had an inviting ease. A black plonge leather shift was all unfussy elegance. An elongated black jacket worn with a cotton lisle T-shirt and gold crushed panne velvet pants was the crowd favorite. It'll look cool in any time zone.
4 June 2012
Michael Kors had a very good day on Wall Street yesterday, with his company's shares rising 27.5 percent. The collection that put him in the spotlight again this morning won't be slowing that upward trajectory. After 30-plus years in the business, Kors has his formula down cold. Today he conjured images of a rustic-luxe cabin in the woods in wintertime—one exceedingly well stocked with buffalo check and fox fur. His trick, as always, was to filter it all through his glamorous yet practical lens.There's a story Kors loves to tell, about a client who buys the designer's clothes in multiples, one for every house. These, too, will play as well in Manhattan as they will in Aspen. Especially the furs—shearling, Mongolian lamb, raccoon. Their envy-inducing potential would go to waste in the wilderness. For women who prefer their outerwear on the tamer side, he showed tartan chesterfields and striped blanket ponchos with deep fringe.Daywear was all about the unexpected mix: an almost conservative midi-length skirt paired with a knit lace tank bustier, or black leather adding edge to a gray plaid dress. Cocktail hour continued to match country with city—see the ivory fisherman sweater and the gold lace skirt. But high evening was highly polished. The crystal-beaded stretch jersey gowns in red and black with keyhole backs were stunners. We wouldn't mind seeing an Oscar nominee wear either one of them.His menswear played a call-and-response with the women's offerings. He might have done better by skipping the man-furs and a tartan crombie and matching trousers topped by a leather harness, and showing some elegant formalwear instead.
14 February 2012
Ann Bonfoey Taylor, a skiwear designer-slash-Colorado aristocrat and the subject of a recent exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum, was Michael Kors' muse for pre-fall. "Nan Kempner on the range," he called her, meaning the lady liked her clothes. The sporty, slightly rugged sensibility of her personal collection rubbed off on his: knee-length walking shorts met a dip-dyed Mongolian lamb vest, and a tissue-thin knit tank was worn with a low-slung taffeta ball skirt belted at the hips. For accessories, he showed harness bags and polished cowboy boots.Kors said pre-fall means three things to his business: "seasonless clothes; it's the power woman's favorite season; and it's Hollywood's evening season because runway dresses are too obvious." In the first category: a draped stretch wool sheath in a black and white plaid. In the second: a three-piece pinstriped pantsuit the vest of which stretched down to the model's knees. And in the third: a black silk button-down tucked into a washed faille short-in-front/long-in-back skirt and a stretchy turquoise tank dress with that same sassy, asymmetric hemline.The three editors in chief at his small presentation—power women all—oohed and aahed the whole way through, but the group saved their real appreciation for the designer's outerwear. Kors has looked west for inspiration before, but he's a city boy at heart, meaning he knows the power of a smart coat. We counted at least three: a Mongolian lamb chubby color-blocked in black and white, a red riding coat with a grand fox collar, and an ivory zip-front coat with a built-in leather harness belt so you don't lose it at coat check. See what we mean about smart?
30 November 2011
Michael Kors claimed his inspiration came from Africa this season. The show notes called it "Afriluxe," an unfortunate bit of marketing speak given the famine crisis in Somalia. But the designer didn't make that misstep with his clothes. This is, after all, territory Kors has explored before. He demonstrated a mostly sure hand today, synthesizing animal prints, hand-dyeing techniques, djellabas, and accessories like crocodile-strap cross-body bags and gladiator sandals that climbed almost to the knee with the easy American sportswear that he owns no matter what the season.Cashmeres, his familiar one-shoulder dresses, sporty swimsuits—this collection had many of the Kors signatures. Only this time around, the sweaters came holey, as if they'd been stuffed into the bottom of a rucksack (OK, maybe better to leave them in there); an asymmetrical dress was woven and fringed by hand; and the tank suits were accessorized with utilitarian belt bags. Morocco? Montauk? A green and red tie-dyed cover-up will look just as right on the sands of either place. But if his gals will take a pass on a scrappy patchwork sweater and skirt, they won't need to book a trip to the Lebombo Lodge, which he mentioned in his program, to want to scoop up his suede jumpsuits, camp shirts, and wrap skirts.Sarongs might be a tougher sell with the Michael Kors man, but there were other pieces that delivered the look in less obvious doses: long, dip-dyed scarves, slouchy cargos, ropy sweaters, and washed leather jackets.
13 September 2011
Michael Kors claimed his inspiration came from Africa this season. The show notes called it "Afriluxe," an unfortunate bit of marketing speak given the famine crisis in Somalia. But the designer didn't make that misstep with his clothes. This is, after all, territory Kors has explored before. He demonstrated a mostly sure hand today, synthesizing animal prints, hand-dyeing techniques, djellabas, and accessories like crocodile-strap cross-body bags and gladiator sandals that climbed almost to the knee with the easy American sportswear that he owns no matter what the season.Cashmeres, his familiar one-shoulder dresses, sporty swimsuits—this collection had many of the Kors signatures. Only this time around, the sweaters came holey, as if they'd been stuffed into the bottom of a rucksack (OK, maybe better to leave them in there); an asymmetrical dress was woven and fringed by hand; and the tank suits were accessorized with utilitarian belt bags. Morocco? Montauk? A green and red tie-dyed cover-up will look just as right on the sands of either place. But if his gals will take a pass on a scrappy patchwork sweater and skirt, they won't need to book a trip to the Lebombo Lodge, which he mentioned in his program, to want to scoop up his suede jumpsuits, camp shirts, and wrap skirts.Sarongs might be a tougher sell with the Michael Kors man, but there were other pieces that delivered the look in less obvious doses: long, dip-dyed scarves, slouchy cargos, ropy sweaters, and washed leather jackets.
13 September 2011
A long holiday in Australia inspired Michael Kors' Resort collection, a very signature sporty/sophisticated mix of fluorescents, zebra prints, and scuba-influenced silhouettes, along with some gold brocade a shade or two deeper than his models' tans. "Sydney is the ultimate city beach life," he said. "I was in love."But Kors is nothing if not an equal-opportunity designer. He explained that an acid green and black stretchy wetsuit dress could work with black tights and ankle booties in New York or bare legs and flip-flops in St. Bart's. Versatility is the key to what he described as his brand's biggest season of the year. So is range. The bright, graphic lineup included everything from "eat-your-heart-out-Ursula" bikinis and a sleeveless stretch bouclé tennis dress to ten-ply cashmere sweaters and a reefer coat in a cashmere/angora mix.The Resort season is just getting under way, but already neons and sport are emerging as two early trends. That puts Kors smack-dab in the middle of things.
1 June 2011
If the celebrity crush was a little crushier and the furs on the runway a little fluffier at Michael Kors this morning, there was a good reason. The designer is marking his 30th year in business. Yes, he started young—at 19, in fact. Tonight, he'll celebrate in the tony confines of Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle, where it's a good bet that some of the boldfacers in the front row—Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bette Midler, Anjelica Huston, and Debra Messing, for starters—will turn up. Next month, no less a figure than the American ambassador to France will welcome him to Paris, with a festive dinner. Kors is opening a store there on Rue Saint-Honoré, and they're putting the finishing touches on a renovated Madison Avenue flagship as we speak. In other words, the designer is having a pretty good birthday year.But we're here to talk about the clothes. You wouldn't be wrong if you called this a greatest-hits collection. Over his career, Kors has ridden double-face cashmere, slinky silk jersey, the aforementioned fox fur, and evening crystals straight to number one, and they were all in abundance today. His MO this time around: playing luxe tailoring against languid draping. For every clean charcoal flannel jacket and straight-leg trouser, there was a clingy cocktail dress or gown. He's loving a tunic for Fall, but they shared the runway with bodysuits. The operative word here wassleek; even the furs were knitted to eliminate some of their inherent bulk. The prettiest came in soft shades of plum and mauve, layered over matching draped jersey tops and pajama pants. Nearly every look in the show was monochrome, the better to create that long, uninterrupted line Kors favors.For the guys, there were luxe takes on wardrobe essentials, too, like leather reefers, tissue-weight knits, and trousers in stretch gab. But the boys couldn't help fading into the background a bit with all the crystal-studded evening numbers Kors offered, the last one modeled to sultry effect by his favorite model, Carmen Kass, in his favorite color, suntan.If you want relaxed but unalloyed glamour, this collection proved that 30 years on, Kors is still the man to give it to you.
15 February 2011
Our review will be posted shortly. In the meantime, please enjoy these pictures.
15 February 2011
"All you writers in the room need to come up with a new word. 'Pre' [as in pre-fall] is disgusting,"Michael Korsannounced at the beginning of a showroom presentation of his new collection today. As quick with crisp, neat basics as he is with quips, the designer turned out a sharply graphic, city-sleek lineup in a strong palette of white, black, red, and electric blue. For day, there was a "Faye Dunaway inNetwork" black leather shirtdress and a black shift with subtle blue trim at the shoulders and waistline. The latter was "for the woman who swears she's gonna wear color" but has a closet full of black.On the more casual side: tapered and cropped pants worn with easy ribbed sweaters "to collect in every color" and striped T-shirts in the finest cashmere. Kors didn't offer a lot of evening options, but he was certain a red chiffon jersey number gathered at the bodice with a contrasting leather harness would be big in Hollywood: "It didn't walk down a runway, so it's not overexposed." On the accessories front, he showed "front-row boots" in knee-high print palomino ponyskin, harness bags that can be worn three ways "for everyone who's dividends didn't come through," and "Anne Slater sunglasses" with blue lenses. About the only thing he didn't deliver: a new name for this awkwardly titled season.
1 December 2010
Michael Kors is in a sunshine state of mind, and can you blame him? He picked up the CFDA's Lifetime Achievement Award in June, his company is expected to break the $1 billion sales barrier this year, and then there are those persistent rumors that theProject Runwaystar is about to get a TV show of his own. The collection opened optimistically, as others have this week, with a passage in white: a gauzy long-sleeve T-shirt over a leg-baring sarong for her, a matching linen suit and tank for him. And the life's-a-breeze, easy-luxe attitude didn't end there.A daffodil tissue-cashmere tank dress popped with energy, as did the tunic dress with three-quarter sleeves that followed. With the exception of his maillots (some for actual swimming, others strictly for sunbathing), the silhouette was loosened up: Pantsuits for both the guys and the girls were relaxed and shirts were worn un-tucked; cardigans came oversize and cozy; and gray cashmere-cotton sweatshirt fabric played a starring role.The theme carried into extras, as well, like exuberantly big cross-body messenger bags (an equal-opportunity accessory) and easy-on-the-feet platform wedges and flat sandals. Even evening was a casually cool affair. Kors' draped silk jersey gowns in ultra-bright yellow and pink were more caftan on the beach than A-lister on the red carpet. In fact, a bit of his usual polished swagger wouldn't have gone amiss.Kors skipped after-dark completely for the guys, unless you count the one lucky male model who got to walk the runway in something called "sky striped techno taffeta pajama pants." Come spring, his nature boys will be sporting Bermuda shorts and sweater vests that dip low enough in front to expose a swatch of chest hair. Life's a beach.
14 September 2010
Michael Kors is in a sunshine state of mind, and can you blame him? He picked up the CFDA's Lifetime Achievement Award in June, his company is expected to break the $1 billion sales barrier this year, and then there are those persistent rumors that theProject Runwaystar is about to get a TV show of his own. The collection opened optimistically, as others have this week, with a passage in white: a gauzy long-sleeve T-shirt over a leg-baring sarong for her, a matching linen suit and tank for him. And the life's-a-breeze, easy-luxe attitude didn't end there.A daffodil tissue-cashmere tank dress popped with energy, as did the tunic dress with three-quarter sleeves that followed. With the exception of his maillots (some for actual swimming, others strictly for sunbathing), the silhouette was loosened up: Pantsuits for both the guys and the girls were relaxed and shirts were worn un-tucked; cardigans came oversize and cozy; and gray cashmere-cotton sweatshirt fabric played a starring role.The theme carried into extras, as well, like exuberantly big cross-body messenger bags (an equal-opportunity accessory) and easy-on-the-feet platform wedges and flat sandals. Even evening was a casually cool affair. Kors' draped silk jersey gowns in ultra-bright yellow and pink were more caftan on the beach than A-lister on the red carpet. In fact, a bit of his usual polished swagger wouldn't have gone amiss.Kors skipped after-dark completely for the guys, unless you count the one lucky male model who got to walk the runway in something called "sky striped techno taffeta pajama pants." Come spring, his nature boys will be sporting Bermuda shorts and sweater vests that dip low enough in front to expose a swatch of chest hair. Life's a beach.
14 September 2010
"I hate the wordresort, andcruiseis worse.Cruiseis some woman in a warm-up suit at a buffet table." The word Michael Kors has come up with to take their place? "Destination." At an informal presentation today, the designer had a dream location in mind for nearly every one of the 36 looks he showed, many of those "destinations" coming from personal experience. Kors said he racked up 35 business trips, plus a few more for pleasure, last year. For the plane to St. Bart's, he'd like to suggest a cool jersey tank dress with an asymmetrical hem, worn with flat python boots. For Gstaad, a knee-length lynx fur vest topping an organic cashmere tank and washed silk pants. And for the Amangiri resort in southern Utah, a sunset ombré cashmere T-shirt gown. If a draped black office-to-cocktails sheath looked less glam by comparison, not even his most privileged clients can vacation all the time. Other city-friendly pieces include a hemp canvas trench, a drapey taupe silk pantsuit, and a collarless python coat.Kors is coming off a strong Fall show and headed for a big Monday night, when he'll accept the Council of Fashion Designers' Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award (his business, believe it or not, turns 30 next year). This confident, item-driven, easy-luxe collection haswinnerwritten all over it, too.
2 June 2010
When he's at the top of his game, Michael Kors is brilliant at conjuring a whole lifestyle in 64 runway looks. The chunky cashmere sweaters, camel suede wrap shirts, distressed leather cargo vests, and floor-skimming sequined jersey gowns the designer showed today stirred up visions of private jets, second homes in the mountains, and very flush bank accounts. If you left the tents not longing for a piece of all that—or, at the very least, not wanting his easy, extravagant shredded silver-fox anorak (the model wore it with the hood up)—then perhaps you'd be happier living in a monastery or commune.With all-American sportswear a big story on the New York runways this week and the Costume Institute's next show,American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, opening in May, this was Kors' moment to shine. And shine he did, updating classics like chesterfields and full trousers by cutting them in crushed flannel. Focusing on fit, he put slits in the elbows of a white coat worn with a deep-V sweater so he could keep the arms razor-thin, and he sliced a paillette jersey gown at the midriff for a relaxed, sexy effect.If it's sexy you want, Kors is your man for Fall. There were tan sternums (on both the guys and the gals) everywhere you looked. The luxe quotient was also plenty high. We've seen a lot of fur trim on coats and even dresses this season, but it doesn't get any better than Kors' shredded fox skirt. It exemplified the combination of indulgence and irreverence that made this collection such a hit.
16 February 2010
Style.com did not review the Fall 2010 menswear collections. Please enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for our complete coverage of the Spring 2011 collections, including reviews of each show by Tim Blanks.
16 February 2010
"I want to rename pre-fall 'city,' " Michael Kors said. "It's our most urban season, the clothes every girl in our office wants to wear all year round." Taking "seasonlessness" as his mantra—and Helmut Newton models as his muses—the designer showed a black bathrobe coat with a fox collar over a chiffon blouse and stretch wool shorts, and a belted zip-front vest with a seamed skirt ("It's a suit but not a suit," he said). There were also plenty of the sort of shoulder-baring shifts that Kors fan Michelle Obama has made her uniform. Versatility was another talking point of a collection that covered a lot of ground. Add one of his clever leather peplum belts to a long-sleeve dress or a sexy strapless number, and presto-change-o, you've got two looks in one. As for his glove-leather sheath with underwire seams, it won't fly in any office we know about, but its racy silhouette is the very definition of "working it." In fact, we wouldn't have objected to more of that Newton kick.
2 December 2009
Madonna and Lady Gaga may have been on the soundtrack, but Michael Kors' show was decidedly not meant for the pants-less set. Explaining that he was thinking about architectural shapes, he sent out a sleek collection that, save for a few missteps, played like an ode to the city in springtime, along with its high-powered inhabitants. The strong yet rounded shoulders of his jackets and vests put thepowerin power suit. Overall, though, he was more interested in sleeveless shift dresses, a favorite of his most high-profile client of all, Michelle Obama. They came in silver crinkle lamé, crushed techno taffeta, draped jersey, and glove leather, but the most interesting was a radzimir number in sky blue with origamilike folds. Kors created surface interest elsewhere with zipper accents that zigzagged around the torso of a mint green asymmetric-neckline sheath, or with bold cutouts that exposed a flash of rib on a cocktail dress.Occasionally, Kors' enthusiasm got the better of him. Dresses with graphic plastic insets might pinch, were some gal to wear them longer than it takes to make a circuit of the runway. And a further detour into deconstruction and high concept—via cashmere knits with slashes at necklines and hems, along with a trio of sweaters with extra sleeves—was off-key. But the show ended on a high note, with a pair of trompe-l'oeil sequined dresses, their graphic shapes evoking a nighttime skyline.
15 September 2009
"I go to Asia every year for Christmas, but I've never acknowledged it [in my designs]," said Michael Kors. "Now I am." That explained this Resort collection's batik prints, built-in sarongs, and bamboo satin jacquard cheongsam. The seventies, however, seemed a stronger influence. Jersey dresses, wraps, and slouchy karate pants recalled the urban, disco-fied glory days of the Studio 54 era. But whatever the inspiration, this was Kors in pragmatic mode. "What keeps it Resort," he observed, "is that everything is packable."
1 June 2009
Michael Kors knows how to take a theme and run with it. One season it's Ali MacGraw's 1970's; more recently it wasMad Men. But for Fall, it's not about a movie, or a TV show; it's about…real life. In his program notes, Kors riffed about "neo-classics," and on the runway there were clothes for corporate boardroom types, anchorwomen, and plenty of other gals for whom real life involves rocking a black fur sleeveless coat from time to time.Tailoring was a focus. As if to prove that he can sniff out a trend, the designer tossed in a few jackets of the sort that have been making the rounds this week—some short-sleeved with squared-off, tucked shoulders; others with cutouts around the lapels. But Kors was at his strongest when he was thinking sleek: elongating, stretch gabardine cigarette trousers; a pantsuit almost as narrow as the chalk stripes on its charcoal flannel; double-face peacoats and balmacaans.In a nod to the prevailing mood, he skipped long dresses entirely, favoring knee-grazing, one-shoulder numbers in matte sequins. Kors also thumbed his nose at the global gods of finance, whipping up shredded fox jackets and coats in neon pink, caution orange, and acid green. Those may be pretty hard to rationalize on a need basis. But as this savvy designer knows, that will make a certain type of woman want one all the more.
17 February 2009
Philip Johnson's 1949 Glass House was the starting point for Michael Kors' pre-fall collection. "We were there for a party and I thought, what year was this done that it looks so modern?" the designer explained as he pointed out pieces like a wood-grain-print sheath dress, a three-quarters-sleeve cheetah-print balmacaan, and color-blocked cashmere sweaters loosely inspired by the architect's midcentury masterpiece. Timeless and seasonless are buzzwords for Kors, so a suit with a sleeveless double-breasted jacket and a collarless black trench were also in the mix. "In this economy, women are investment-oriented," he added. If you can't afford to buy art, the designer has the answer: a Jackson Pollock splatter-print dress.
6 January 2009
Leave it to Michael Kors to channel our election-year anxieties about the future of the country into a feel-good paean to our homegrown style. From the first trill of the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" to the last stretch jersey gown, Kors' collection was an extended riff on American classics, from teeny-weeny polka-dot bikinis (worn with fifties-style full skirts) and picnic-blanket-check pinafore dresses to sporty neoprene scuba shifts. Yes, even that much-maligned uniform of Middle America, the tracksuit, got a tweaking. Forget polyester: Kors' version comes in crushed silk.In keeping with the flag-waving theme, there were more stripes than you'd find on all the lapel pins in Congress: pinstripes on an origami wrap dress, navy and red horizontal bands on a formfitting stretch knit sheath, and countless nautical tees and sweaters worn with crumpled cotton trousers, bathing-suit bottoms, and ball skirts. No, there was nothing subtle about it. And it wasn't the home run that last season'sMad Menromp was; for one thing, it didn't look as rich, and Kors' ladies like rich if nothing else. But you can't fault Kors' enthusiasm, or his joie de vivre (pardon our French). Only the most hardened cynics in the crowd left feeling less than optimistic.
9 September 2008
"It's Babe [Paley] and Tony [Duquette]," Michael Kors announced at his Resort presentation today. The former was represented by the soigné, fitted dresses—some beaded, others in washed moiré—that are a Kors signature. The latter was evident as much in the prints, which referenced malachite, turquoise, and marble, as in the outsize, ethnic-inspired jewelry. Adding to the classic resort feel of the collection were flowing caftans, shirred maillots, and tie-dye pieces. You don't need a crystal ball to know that they'll all be hits at the designer's Palm Beach store, scheduled to open later this year.
2 June 2008
Amy Winehouse wouldn't have been Alfred Hitchcock's type. He liked his ladies blond first and prim second. But Michael Kors didn't let that stop him from mashing up the two influences at his Fall show. After the lights dimmed and the photographers were finally done snapping pics of fashionably late celebrities Natasha Richardson, Sigourney Weaver, Debra Messing, and Ellen Pompeo, out came Kors' heroines: hyper-polished Kim Novak types with teased updos that stopped several inches short of the Winehouse stratosphere. They wore sheaths in a lilac and olive floral, balmacaans, and camel suits with a new longer, narrow skirt. They flung sable coats over their cashmere sweaters and cropped ocelot-print pants, or slipped mink stoles over tweedy jackets and glen plaid skirts. And they carried frame bags in the crooks of their elbows. Come cocktail hour, their options ranged from a strapless dress in gold matelassé to a silvery princess frock embellished with a bow. And for really gala evenings, there were column gowns with Watteau backs.Was it retro? Well, yes. And it looked familiar, too: The era has been plumbed to its depths. But it never felt too costumey. And it helped that he reined in his natural exuberance when it came to accessories. Well schooled as Kors is in the early sixties and the ways of Hollywood, maybe he should ditchProject Runwayfor a part onMad Men?
5 February 2008
"Menloveclothes in Hollywood," Michael Kors said backstage before his show. "I'm sure Eric Dane thinks about clothes more than his wife, Rebecca." The Danes were in the front row, alongside costar Ellen Pompeo, Debra Messing, Raquel Welch, Sigourney Weaver, and Natasha Richardson, to see Kors' take on something he called "The Reel Life," mixing timeless and tabloid. For the women, that high/low thing meant Hitchcock blonde with a shot of Amy Winehouse. For the men, in their heavy horn rims and snap-brim hats, it was more Cary Grant with the mean streak ofMad Men.It worked.Kors left no smart-guy classic untouched: From cashmere sweater set to camel blazer, from herringbone crombie to sharkskin suit, he re-created a capsule wardrobe for a thrusting young exec circa '63. But, just as the iciness of his women was warmed up by a hint of Winehouse, he brought his retro references up to the present with the punky fuzz of a saffron mohair sweater, or a shearling-lined duffel coat in viscous black patent. One conspicuous absentee from his lineup? Anything sporty, like sweatpants. Kors wants his young Hollywoodites to be dressed for the paps at all times.
5 February 2008
"I wish we could think up a different word for it than 'pre-fall,' " said Michael Kors at his showroom presentation today. " 'New stuff,' maybe, or seasonless clothes would be a better description." With that, he showed off two dozen urbane looks in ivory and black that owe a debt to the pulled-together style of the Hitchcock heroines Kim Novak and Tippi Hedren. In the city-sleek lineup were a chic, hip-length cape worn with narrow, cropped pants; a fluttery ruffle-neck blouse that topped a slim pencil skirt; and a little black cocktail number with a trim bodice and a tulip skirt blossoming below a bow at the waist. Dresses were a focal point; they came fitted in a cashmere-angora knit or flirty in a tweed-print chiffon. "Take off the tights, and it's a summer dress," said Kors. "That's the thing about these clothes—they've got to work 'now' and going forward."
6 January 2008
"We were looking at some fabulous advertising from the late seventies and early eighties for Virginia Slims and Charlie," said Michael Kors before his show. "There was something about those women; they were very sexy, but sporty at the same time." Kind of like the Kors woman. Come springtime, she'll need clothes for tennis at the club, lunch and a meeting in the city, cocktails, cruises, and galas, too. And today, on his runway, Kors had plenty of suggestions: He started with Lilly Pulitzer pastels, in stripes or Impressionist florals for the court and the beach, and tossed in a few of his beloved caftans before the show was over, this season in an oversize black-on-white flower print designed to complement white maillots with gold-chain straps. For the office, there were chic navy suitings and this season's must-have safari jacket paired with wide-leg trousers. After dark, his girls will have a few options: gold sequins, drapey black jersey, or fruity chiffons—as in guava, apricot, and apple.With Olivia Newton-John'sXanaduon the speakers, the show could have become kitsch, but Kors leavened the frivolity with a healthy respect for classic cuts and silhouettes—and don't forget paper-thin cashmere, the building block of a smart spring wardrobe. In the battle between opulence and simplicity, Kors—when he's on solid form like this—wins.
8 September 2007
Michael Kors came up with a typically cute sobriquet for his spring collection: Virginia Slim Aarons. It embodies everything he loves in a woman—sexy, sporty, casually deluxe—and he's a past master at capitalizing on that spirit. But his challenge with his men's range is to find the guy who'd be a match for such a gal. Actually,matchwasn't far off the mark with Kors' latest looks: The first man out wore tennis shorts, carried a racket, and sported a white cashmere hoodie under his navy blazer. He looked like a glossy tennis pro. Next was a pink cashmere turtleneck, also under a navy blazer. This was the pro, après-tennis. And aprèsça? A stream of clothes that suggested the kind of men who would dance attendance on Kors' fabulous females in a strictly professional capacity. Not gigolos, mind you, but dressy male wing pieces just the same. That might explain all the shorts on parade, the better to reveal legs tanned and toned by the leisurely pursuit of the good life. One particularly striking look matched a gold Lurex polo shirt with linen shorts, also glazed and belted in gold. This young Apollo would surely gladden the heart of a Lilly Pulitzer-clad matron. The metallic theme was equally striking in a pairing of polo (in silver cashmere) and pants (in silver sharkskin). Kors has a finely honed appetite for camp—attested to by the soundtrack's exuberant bursts of Mika, Scissor Sisters, andXanadu—and it finds its purest expression in his menswear.
8 September 2007
Channeling Gloria Guinness by way of Veruschka, Michael Kors designed a resort collection for the type of woman who wants to look perfectly polished whether she's lunching in Palm Beach or lounging seaside in St. Barths. She wears bikinis and maillots dripping with hardware. ("We call them 'posing suits,' " said the designer, "because our girl never gets them wet.") Caftans and sundresses, some in delft porcelain patterns, also came embellished with eye-catching metallic and crystal accents. Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of animal prints, the most interesting of which was a gold-and-khaki leopard cut into a sleeveless dress with a lace-up neckline that fashion watchers will recognize as a modern-day descendant of YSL's legendary safari jacket.
9 July 2007
Sportswearhas become one of Fall's buzzwords, and Michael Kors was not only in his element but in top crowd-pleasing form. Working in a palette of soft, flattering (read: salable) neutrals, with shots of safety orange and caution yellow, he laid the cashmere on thick. A knit dress shaded from cream to chestnut. An oversize face-framing cowl-neck pullover peaked out from beneath a Donegal tweed swing coat. And other sweaters, with plunging V-necks and deep keyholes, made an erogenous zone of the back.The only thing he loves more than four-ply, of course, is fur. Here, Kors pulled out all the stops. It trimmed trenches and anoraks, even a stand-away-collar sheath. And—talk about luxe—he used truffle broadtail for a swing dress and coffee mink for a shift. Should the absolutely mammoth fox chubby in royal blue have suffocated the tiny model who wore it, any number of his front-row fans would've swooped in to pick it up—no second thought for the girl.For evening, there was this season's requisite fringe dress and an even shorter cocktail number in an oversize gold-and-brown sequin check, a riff on the collection's glen plaid suiting. His signature long jersey dresses, meanwhile, were embroidered with clear crystals. Sexy, but they didn't have the unleashed exuberance of his day looks.
6 February 2007
The spirit of dichotomy—the interplay of casual and dressy, of covered versus bare—that infused Michael Kors' new women's collection was much less extreme in his menswear. Though Kors possibly has more of a natural instinct for such contradiction than other designers—you might even say it's the essence of his style—this season it was the dressed-up that was really calling to him. He wanted to reclaim the suit as a male staple, so he offered it with generously cut trousers that he felt would speak more to young men. His puffer came in black cashmere; his parka was paired with cashmere flannel pants.The idea of the glamorized basic is another Kors signature. It's always worked wonders for his woman, but the challenge with men is that male glamour actually needs a spice of the outré Old World to make it truly seductive (even those Hurrell photos of fine, upstanding cowboys like Gary Cooper had a dreamy, narcissistic tinge). Kors' gift is possibly too all-American to provide the requisite edge. So what really stood out were the items that it was easiest to imagine him wearing, such as a winning series of waffle-knits with matching mufflers in hazmat orange, taxicab yellow, and royal blue.
6 February 2007
Michael Kors loves a theme, and with his latest collection, he finally found a theme that loves him right back. Like the American TV audience, Kors has gone gaga for dance, taking his cues from the likes of Baryshnikov and Bob Fosse. Their effortless athleticism made a perfect complement to Kors's own inclinations toward the simple and sporty. It also provided his menswear a much-needed spark; these clothes were all about the kind of movement critical to the dancer's craft. Even the suits were light enough to be Gene Kelly–ready.But the core of the collection was a kind of choreographer's combo: utility pants, white sneakers, roll-neck sweater, sleeves of another sweater knotted casually around waist. It was a physical, functional look that managed to be supremely stylish in its bare essentials. The same casual effect was duplicated in the cashmere hoodie under a white linen blazer or the layering of short over long sleeves. Kors's own particular pleasure was in the pleating in the pants: six months of research, he claimed, to yield a result that looked good on every age of man. The pleats were deep and doubled on both suit trousers and sporty slacks in black linen.
12 September 2006
With Justin Timberlake promising to "bring sexy back" on the soundtrack, Michael Kors turned out a collection that was one long riff on a dancer's body-loving wardrobe. His palette was nude, black, and tutu pink, with flashes of metallics, and his materials—which he layered on his models as if they were ballerinas on their way to the studio—ran from fine stretch wools to jazzy matte jerseys to chunkier knits. With all the leggings and crimped updos and even an off-the-shoulderFlashdancesweater or two, Kors was having a real eighties moment. It was fun while it lasted, but somehow out of step with his usual polished sense of chic. After several days of tent and trapeze looks, the waist came into sharp focus here. Kors cinched wide patent and python belts atop everything from maillots to evening dresses. Sequins, meanwhile, provided a Bob Fosse touch. Was it a coincidence thatChicagostar Usher was in the audience? Or that across from him was one of the musical's alums, Bebe Neuwirth—in fishnets, no less? The collection's retro-sexy, look-at-me glitz should play big with the designer's new and hugeProject Runwayfan base. Still, you wanted a few more of the Kors-luxe knits, great tailored jackets, and sleek evening numbers he's best known for.
12 September 2006
Michael Kors is always precise in his use of celluloid inspiration. This season, it was love stories:The Great Gatsby,The Graduate, and, of course,Love Storyitself. That gave the designer another opportunity to indulge his Ali MacGraw obsession in the womenswear, but the men were more done-up than one remembers Ryan O'Neal ever being.Kors said his L.A. store has given him invaluable insight into the craving young guys feel for a more formal approach to getting dressed. So even though there was plenty of collegiate layering here, the Kors man was never less than immaculate. Shirts came with big, fat seventies ties, and the footwear of choice was cordovan boots—no sneakers for these college boys.At one point, Kors paired a velvet jacket, treated with metal to give it a worn effect, with a denim shirt and gray flannel pinstriped trousers. The resulting mix—Dressed-down smart? Dressed-up casual?—epitomized the spirit of his menswear this season.
8 February 2006
After last season's road trip through the Painted Desert, Michael Kors returned to the East Coast for fall inspirations—specifically to Jay Gatsby's West Egg and the Harvard stomping grounds ofLove Story's Ali MacGraw. For fans of the designer's trademark mix of tony chic and all-American prep, it was a sure-to-please match.Gatsby brought long vests and knickers, drop-waist shifts jauntily tied with bows, and a cocktail party's worth of crystals, mostly on flapper dresses, to the relationship. MacGraw's contributions included rugby stripes, handkerchief hems, paisleys, and cable-knit cardigans. Then there were her collegiate accessories: distressed-leather belts, argyle knee socks, and, yes, those iconic knit caps.This is well-trodden territory, of course. The actress, and her early-seventies era, has long been a house favorite. As effortless as the marriage clearly is, it wouldn't hurt for Kors to let his eyes wander a bit for a new, more modern muse. The first place he should look is his own dazzling socialite- and celebrity-packed front row.
7 February 2006
Michael Kors is a native New Yorker with serious prairie envy. Time and again, the designer seeks inspiration in America's open spaces. For spring, he set his sights on the Southwest and designed a collection that was half Texas, half Taos, but not without an urban edge. After all, his big-city girls, like Catherine Zeta-Jones, who, along with husband Michael Douglas, unleashed a paparazzi melee at the show, want to look chic no matter what their destination may be.To that end, he offered up warm-weather staples with a rich seventies bent, like safari shirts, gauchos, and scarf dresses. There were ecrus, olives, browns, crisp blacks and whites, and painted desert accents of orange and red. Kors can't resist matching a bikini top with a full skirt; when the bottoms were on display, they were of the high-waist retro variety. (Gratefully, those eyelet numbers were lined.)It wasn't all fun in the sun. Take away the hat tied around her neck, and Lisa Cant's black wool serge bolero and cropped pants go from Santa Fe to Manhattan's Upper East Side. Of course, his eveningwear—this season in tiers of chantilly lace and point d'esprit—is always gala ready, regardless of the time zone or backdrop.Now back to the desert. Some members of the audience questioned Kors' use of camouflage. Was it a political statement, a message of support for our troops, or neither? One thing's for certain: His hand-painted camo-backed mink balmacaan is likely to inspire a waiting list a country mile long.
13 September 2005
It seems audacious to choose this particular moment in American history to dub camouflage the new fashion basic, but Michael Kors claimed precedent by pointing to its fashionability during the Vietnam era. Social comment or simply a classic print? You decide, Kors said before his show. Either way, camouflage provided the graphic cornerstone of a collection that reveled in a desert-toned earthiness. The print appeared in an army jacket worn with patchwork fatigues (nothing ambiguous there) and, memorably, as a hoodie under a dark-chocolate linen suit.Kors always builds his collections on a dream couple. This time, it was Taylor and Hudson inGiant,with a dash of Stieglitz and O'Keefe. (The designer got Douglas and Zeta-Jones for his front row, who aresurelya dream couple in the eyes of someone, somewhere.) A relaxed, Texas-Taos vibe prevailed: the models wore sandals, and a cashmere sweater was blanket-stitched, as was a pair of chamois jeans. Jackets, shirts, and trousers had a pre-worn crinkle, courtesy of the season's ubiquitous metal/cotton blend. And one shirt drew its print from the pattern on a bandana.For a Michael Kors show, it verged on funky, though the designer's jump-back reaction to the word suggests that he feels it compromises his innately chic, urban sensibility. Still, when he turned to big-city black-and-white, Kors showed it as a hooded linen sweater over loose linen trousers and as a wrinkled cotton suit—and always with sandals. Like we said, kind of funky.
12 September 2005
Since he opened his store in L.A., Michael Kors has been struck by how adventurous Hollywood men are in their approach to dressing. He had George Clooney in mind (with Gwyneth Paltrow as a dream consort) for his new collection. In practice, though, Kors' Tinseltown fantasy turned out to be a pretty literal expression of the sports-and-suits fusion that has dominated the fall season. He showed a lot of ski pants, paired with everything from a fox-trimmed silver anorak to a herringbone blazer. Most of them were in nylon, and worn with goggles, a knit hat, and an enormous muffler (Scarf alert! Start knitting now!), they looked ready for Aspen, which has always been another dream locale for the designer. When he moved away from the synthetic, Kors showed trousers with a fuller, forties influence. Given the collection's monochrome palette, these evoked inevitable echoes of Old Hollywood, except that backstage he claimed it was a private order from Usher that inspired him. He's the kind of urban dandy who might be partial to some of Kors' more exciting flourishes, like the coats in nutria and broadtail.
8 February 2005
After last spring's dip in the Mediterranean, Michael Kors sought fall inspiration in his New York stomping grounds—Madison Avenue in particular, where a Saturday afternoon stroll calls for a turtleneck, khakis, and a mammoth raccoon coat.As Gwen Stefani sang about a "million-dollar contract," Kors' models streamed down the runway in suitably luxe silks, suedes, and cashmeres, and fur aplenty. The designer favored streamlined, sport-influenced silhouettes, from second-skin stretch-crepe bodices on dresses to ski pants in nylon or faille. Graphic blacks and whites were accentuated with shots of bright red, blue, and purple, and camel was teamed with icy gray. Kors' cosmopolitan outfits were topped off with knit caps and goggle-like sunglasses—but if his city girls have a real hankering for the slopes, they can slip into a snowflake tube top or a simple dress accented with racing stripes.In addition to all those polished sportif looks, Kors included enough evening options to clothe customers with a party to attend every night. Cocktail numbers were studded with crystals and trimmed with feathers that shimmied as the models strode by—he didn't call them "dance dresses" for nothing—while his gowns in monochrome brights were made for the spotlight.
8 February 2005
Where the Kors woman jet-sets, so follows the Kors man, and for spring that internationally chic couple settled down for an extended stay in Santorini. It may be one of Europe's more glamorous resorts, but the wardrobe requirements are surprisingly simple: a neat blazer, a supple sweater, crisp shirts and soft tees, jeans, and, of course, loafers with no socks. This is the good life, though, so all those come in the finest materials: python, for example, or featherweight cashmere. And though he's American through and through, the Kors male has enough panache to pull off ascots, neckerchiefs, even a pashmina—all the better to cover up those extra-skimpy python-print swimming trunks.
13 September 2004
For such an archetypal American designer, Michael Kors draws plenty of inspiration from the great European resorts: Capri, St. Tropez, Portofino. This spring, it was Mykonos and Santorini, where one can imagine the idle jet set of both genders strolling through the local market wearing not much more than a bikini and a breezy tunic.As the soundtrack bounced from one cheery, cheesy Top 40 hit to another (like a rental-car radio being twiddled by a restless, but well dressed, passenger), Kors sent out a clean, commercially viable collection. There were equatorially bright shades of blue, lime green, and orange, exotic animal prints like tiger and python, and high-end bits like rich glittery brocade and the occasional fur or leather topper. The island feeling came through in crisp white pieces and embroidered tunics. And there were skimpy bathing suits aplenty, for women and men alike. One male model sported a nylon number so brief, editors compared him to Times Square's naked singing cowboy, while another model wore his with a cigar—a nod to Kors' owner, Laurence Stroll.Balancing the simple and the luxurious is Kors' driving principle, and there were plenty of multitasking pieces: little cashmere cardigans to wear over a bikini or evening dress, for example, or silky jersey dresses that won't wrinkle when they're smushed into a suitcase. And the draped-chiffon goddess gowns that closed the show would look equally great on seaside terrace or red carpet. But Kors' collections, while always polished, have become as smooth as a moonlight sail—and that's too bad. It would be nice to see Kors break out in a bold new direction. Next season, how about a trip to Atlantic City?
13 September 2004
Bursting with confidence: That could describe Michael Kors’s ideal woman, his fall show or, these days, the designer himself. In the past year, Kors has been on a business-building rampage. He sold his company, tripled his staff, moved into a mammoth new office space, and introduced a lower-priced line with multimillion-dollar ambitions.The collection was rooted in Kors’s favorite luxe materials (cashmere, fluttery silks, fine-gauge knits, suede, and lots and lots of fur) and strong tailoring. As expected, there were classics aplenty—suede jeans, an Aran-knit tank top, dramatic sweeping coats, and perfect little sweaters. But there was also a new friskiness on the runway. Kors jettisoned his usual neutrals for juicy colors like lavender, light blue, coral, and chocolate, and mixed in lots of pieces that require a certain youthful bravura (not to mention great legs) to pull off: fringed suede minis, slippery silk blouses, and clingy jersey dresses with rippling knee-length skirts. He piled on the accessories, too, topping the outfits with hefty belts, tooled-leather bags, floppy felt hats, or a knitted mink scarf in a spun-sugar color. In this kind of mood, Kors certainly isn’t feeling like an early-to-bed guy; he closed the show with a handful of high-glamour evening gowns, including one bronze beaded showstopper that glowed like a bright new day.
10 February 2004
Call it destination dressing. For his spring collection, Michael Kors created a wardrobe with a specific locale in mind: the tiny Mediterranean island of Capri, where pleasure-seekers spend their days yacht-hopping in the harbor and their nights table-hopping at the cafés.The designer excels at giving classic cuts a sexy edge and a sly spin of luxe, and this season’s jet-set theme gave him carte blanche to pile it on. He added bright gold zippers and contrast stitching to slim jeans; cut miniskirts and motorcycle jackets out of supple suede; and wrapped a prizefighter-size gold belt around a suede romper. Typical Kors hallmarks included leather luggage straps in place of ties on a halter dress, nautical references, and his signature mix of high and low fabrics (silk and canvas, for example). He used white, black, and khaki as a backdrop to set off colors—like vivid orange, yellow, cobalt, and green—which were far more intense than the muted tones generally in favor this season.For a major designer, Kors didn’t offer much in the way of full-out evening glamour, just a few simple gowns and one beaded dress as blue as the Mediterranean. But his color-blocked cashmeres, swingy silk jersey skirts, crisp organdy shirts, and dresses in blue-and-white awning stripes will certainly make his customer feel ready for Capri—even if she’s stuck in midtown.
16 September 2003
Michael Kors is at his best when he allows a little edge to cut through his luxurious sensibility. The collection he showed for fall, rife with references to biker leathers and tough-but-sexy chicks, had just the right blend of rock ’n’ roll energy and urban sophistication.In his notes, Kors mentioned the go-go world of Warhol in the ’60s, but the collection was refreshingly free of retro references—unless you count the legions of tight little minis he sent out, in cashmere, crocodile and stretchy wools. (The best of all, a marvelous piece of walnut-brown fringed suede, was worn—like no one else can—by Naomi Campbell.) Kors paired these, or smart, skinny pants, with great oversized toppers of all genres: giant satin jean jackets, studded black leather styles, slouchy anoraks with fur trim and generous reefers and bathrobe coats made from plush cashmere or mink. For night, he stitched bands of silvery fringe onto skirts and dresses, and ended with a dazzling, glittery disco-ball of a dress on Carmen—perfect for frugging the night away at Ondine's
11 February 2003
As much as he loves Gotham glamour, even Michael Kors needs to get out of the city once in a while. For spring, he headed to California, taking inspiration from its laid-back way of life and those casual style icons (Slim Keith, Lauren Bacall) whose sex appeal was about ease, not sleaze.Kors paid homage to the great outdoors, Left Coast–style, via cotton piqué polo shirts, snappy little dresses (accessorized with practical, flat shoes and golf gloves) and a few bathing suits, all done in classic neutrals: khaki, navy, white, ivory. For those times when even beach bunnies have to come indoors, Kors added relaxed, knee-length jersey dresses and skirts in bands of blue-sky tones; crisp cotton tuxedo shirts worn with tailored pants; and fuzzy twinsets in bold turquoise. Lovely guipure dresses and organza skirts paired with the simplest knit tops were just right for poolside parties, with a glossy leather jacket or a supple deerskin balmacaan to ward off brisk nighttime breezes. And to pack it all up for an impromptu weekend in Lake Tahoe, Kors provided generous leather totes that fit perfectly in the trunk of the Mustang.
17 September 2002
Michael Kors went right for the heart of his customer with a Fall show that blended elegant luxury with down-home comfort.Inspired in part by "the rustic glamour of Aspen," Kors designed a collection perfect for one of his smart urban customers who might jump on her Harley on Friday and zoom off to spend the weekend skiing at Stowe. For the trip up, she'll put on one of his tough-girl chic leather motorcycle jackets and his skintight cotton ripstop pants; once there, she'll undo the knee-to-ankle zipper to make a sharp boot-cut trouser, and throw on a quilted leather anorak and hand-painted jeans or a fluffy knee-length coyote vest to hang out in the lodge. Après-ski, she'll slip into a feather-light cashmere baby doll or a camel pointelle jersey dress for hearthside lounging.Kors covered the work week beautifully as well, with double-face wool pieces like a generous clutch coat over a short wrap-front skirt, lightweight cashmere dresses and sweaters, or a chic suede coat and pants hand-painted in a herringbone pattern. The bonus prize? With all the smart-looking new menswear Kors showed, her boyfriend can look just as good as she does.
12 February 2002
"I really appreciate the fact that we have all come together," said a newly mustachioed Michael Kors before his showroom presentation. "Let's be cheerleaders for all that New York has to offer, because this is the most amazing city in the world."Kors' positive outlook was evident in a concise collection that brought to mind the best of Halston, with an injection of movie-star glamour (his update on the giant tie-strap tote bag is destined to become a collectible). Alongside beachy getaway clothes, more sophisticated urban looks included chinoiserie-inspired red lacquer cardigans and sweatshirts, georgette halter dresses, and brush-stroke skirts (upon close inspection, some of the abstract prints proved to be expressionist MK logos). Evening took a turn for the dramatic with slinky bandeau columns and stunning black-and-gold embroidered tulle shells and shifts.Kors' practical yet lighthearted collection struck a chord that is likely to resonate throughout this season.
19 September 2001
After Michael Kors' bold take on country luxe, there's little doubt that equestrian chic will be a recurring theme next Fall. Kors may have been inspired by life on the farm, but there was nothing rough-edged or dowdy about his thoroughbred looks. Riding britches were turned into lean, mean trousers that could be tucked into tall leather boots or worn with double-buckle boyish shoes; cashmere Aran sweaters and bright marigold, kelly green and scarlet turtlenecks looked divine under sinful, double-faced blanket coats to the floor.Kors kept his collection sharply in focus by consistently emphasizing contrasts: Dramatic capes flowed over skinny jodhpurs and mini-shifts while crisp, colorful piping gave an architectural edge to everything from quilted field skirts to practical leather jackets. The recurring play of opposites was especially successful with the evening looks: A long, beaded bronze lace skirt looked perfect with a casual turtleneck and sporty suede jacket; an ivory sweater coat unceremoniously framed a shimmering evening gown.It takes considerable talent and experience to pull off such a collection without stumbling onto a minefield of overworked references. It's no coincidence that this Fall marks Michael Kors' 20th anniversary of designing casual yet utterly luxurious clothes.
13 February 2001
Kudos to Michael Kors, who presented a strong, easy-to-wear collection that reconfirmed his status as a modern master of practical American sportswear.Fashion icons Lauren Hutton, Ali MacGraw and Martha Graham were important references for Kors, their relaxed style reinterpreted in earthy jersey ballet dresses, inviting cashmere hand-knit sweaters and a sensational muslin beaded embroidered skirt. True to his love for ultra-luxurious materials, Kors also showed a divine barley suede off-the-shoulder shift, several light shearling jackets, and a mink-backed suede serape to ward off chilly April breezes. The obligatory beige trench came in double-faced cotton, washed and oversized—creating a loose, comfortable silhouette that was anchored down with low-slung leather belts.In contrast to last season's somewhat uptight evening looks, Kors closed his Spring show with a couple of absolutely brilliant—and perfectly simple—black stretch jersey gowns that brought to mind the best of the Halston era.
19 September 2000
Big-city glamour was the inspiration for Michael Kors' dazzlingly rich, unabashedly ladylike show, which is sure to usher in a season of polished, sophisticated dressing. Kors reinterpreted decadent deco classics—sleek, tailored coats, languid blouses and body-hugging metallic columns—in a way that brilliantly crystallized the opulence of the current fashion moment. There were also textured tweed suits, sumptuous cashmere sweaters (which are currently being treated as essential, everyday staples) and healthy doses of fur and feathers for good measure. How to accessorize the 1930s by way of 2000? With large pearls everywhere, sleek pumps, Minnie-the-Moocheresque head wraps and fedora hats and ice-cool diamond belts, of course.
8 February 2000
"Palm Bitch" was the inspiration for Michael Kors's extravagant and luxurious cavalcade of tangerine, lemon and bright-pink looks. There were familiar Kors favorites like jersey shifts (this time in Lilly Pulitzer-like acid-colored floral patterns) and sumptuous cashmere cable pullovers in bright yellow and white. Buttery leather skirts were embroidered and paired with simple tanks, while zebra prints made unexpected appearances in everything from cotton shifts to bikinis and cabana shirts. For an evening of uncomplicated glamour, Kors offered slinky jersey columns, nude beaded gowns and seafoam-colored halters.
14 September 1999