Michael Kors

Photo: Gorunway.com
One of the most awaited shows on the New York Fashion Week calendar, Michael Kors staged a beautiful spectacle for its Spring 2024 collection in the Big Apple on Monday. Read on as Vogue Arabia rounds up the five biggest highlights from the presentation.

Physically in New York, mentally on an island

Guests may have debarked from yachts and helicopters to arrive at the show alongside the Hudson River and overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge, but the venue itself was unlike anything in New York—including the weather. A white boardwalk-turned-runway was framed by a railing covered in pink Bougainvillea, evoking the charm of a faraway island such as Italy’s Capri and Greece’s Santorini as the sun shone through clouds.
The theme was ‘holiday’
Photo: Gorunway.com
Indicated by the idyllic setting and the pieces that came down the runway, the show was all about celebrating the magic of a getaway surrounded by “blue skies, balmy weather, and sunny days.” In his show notes, designer Michael Kors said, “This season, we’re taking everyone on holiday. It’s the transcendent joy of getting away, it’s the sweeping romance of a glamorous escape and it’s a jolt of sophisticated, chic optimism.”
Familiar faces dotted the runway and the front row
Nora Attal. Photo: Gorunway.com
Kors enlisted a cast of diverse runway fixtures for his show including models Nora Attal, Vittoria Ceretti, Anok Yai, Liya Kebede, Natasha Poly, Ashley Graham, Liu Wen, Irina Shayk, and Mariacarla Boscono. The front row was filled with equally loved personalities like Halle Berry, Vanessa Hudgens, Hayley Atwell, Rita Ora, Ariana DeBose, and Anitta, all dressed in statement Michael Kors looks. Blake Lively, in particular, arrived in a 70s-inspired gold sequined jumpsuit from the brand’s FW23 collection.
The collection was inspired by the 1960s and early 70s
Photo: Gorunway.com
The show saw models walk to a soundtrack of Kors’ favorite tracks from the 1960s wearing designs inspired by the era. Breezy pieces with the brand’s signature tailoring resulted in romantic silhouettes including some made entirely in lace and crochet. Boxy suits were contrasted by fluid kaftans, while goddess dresses came with belts, and sheer numbers were topped by overcoats. Alongside flat shoes for accessories, there were a couple of nods to the iconic style of Jane Birkin, including an artisanal handwoven bucket bag.
Neutrals with metallic hardware reigned supreme 
Photo: Gorunway.com
While there were a few pops of color via hues like purple and pink and the occasional print, the collection leaned heavily toward solid neutrals. Alongside the Michael Kors signature camel and beige was a deeper brown and the timeless black—all paired with gold hardware as a recurring detail.
Read Next: Michael Kors Brings Together Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid and Irina Shayk at NYFW

Photo: Courtesy of Burberry
With Ramadan 2022 just around the corner, come the exclusive capsule collections from some of the biggest fashion houses as well as high-end brands. Having spent the Holy Month in the past two years with Covid-19 restrictions, this year, Ramadan will once again be celebrated with festive gatherings for iftar and suhoor that call for dressing up.

Below, discover the best capsule collections from luxury labels, high-end brands, and local designers with exclusive pieces worth investing in this Ramadan.
Christian Louboutin 
Photo: Courtesy of Christian Louboutin
An ode to Louboutin’s love for nature, gardening, and landscape design, the collection offers pieces for both men and women in lush green hues.
Dior
Photo: Courtesy of Dior
Dior’s handbags and small leather goods are always a winning final touch to every fit. For Ramadan, the French luxury brand has introduced timeless dazzling pieces.
Salvatore Ferragamo 
Photo: Courtesy of Salvatore Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo has re-introduced its iconic Gancini bag for Ramadan 2022, but with a metallic twist in Flamingo Rose. Combining glamorous and sparkling pieces within their Ramadan collection, there is a piece for every occasion.
Louis Vuitton
Photo: Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton embraces emerald green as its color for the holy season as a symbol of class, hope, prosperity, and peace. Alongside introducing ready-to-wear pieces for the occasion for the first time, the brand has also reimagined its Capucines Mini bag in a matte black and python green.
Leem
Photo: Courtesy of Leem
The Saudi label’s exclusive collection for Ramadan is inspired by the Lunar calendar of the month and its religious stages (mercy, forgiveness, and safety), to feature kaftans in a contemporary color palette and modern cuts.
Mango 
Photo: Courtesy of Mango
Mango‘s Ramadan offering features vibrant and playful pieces that add a contemporary twist to modest clothing—from jumpsuits to tailored suits.
Anthropologie
Photo: Courtesy of Anthropologie
Anthropologie’s ready-to-wear collection includes a selection of colorful wrap dresses, comfortable jumpsuits, stylish blouses, and flowy trousers that are ideal for hotter days.
Tony Burch 
Photo: Courtesy of Tony Burch
The Tony Burch Ramadan capsule captures the festive essence of the month in metallic gold and royal blue handbags with gold rope chains.
Michael Kors
Photo: Courtesy of Michael Kors
The Michael Kors Ramadan collection is comprised of 11 timeless pieces from handbags to scarves, bracelets, and belts—all in a rich blue color.
Tommy Hilfiger 
Photo: Courtesy of Tommy Hilfiger
Tommy Hilfiger celebrates Ramadan with a pastel-hued collection of breezy dresses, kaftans, and jumpsuits with gold accents.
Burberry 
Photo: Courtesy of Burberry
Inspired by constellations, sunsets, sunrises, and starry nights of Ramadan, Burberry has launched a collection of glistening pieces just in time for Ramadan.
Bottega Veneta 
Photo: Courtesy of Bottega Venata and Ounass
Available on Ounass, Bottega Veneta’s limited-edition Ramadan offering features three of the fashion house’s iconic pieces reimagined in three distinct colors, including gold.
Read Next: Exclusive: Louis Vuitton’s Ramadan Collection Includes a Debut Clothing Line and a New Fragrance

Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and it’s the perfect time to show moms just how much they are appreciated. The hard work that mothers put in on a daily basis deserves praise, and even a little gift can go a long way in letting her know that she is both cherished and appreciated. However, it can be hard to choose the perfect gift to accompany a beautiful bouquet of flowers on this special occasion, especially since every mother differs in style and choice. Luckily, your favorite labels seem to have heard your call for a helping hand, and have launched several pieces this month that will make your mother feel as special as can be on March 21.
If your mom likes to keep it classic, check out Mulberry‘s new Mother’s Day range, which includes a fail-safe set of Forget Me Not pearl earrings, while Skin Story is here to make sure your mother feels pampered with its range of indulgent multisticks. Got a mom who loves bold accessories? Jude Benhalim jewelry comes in strong with its statement gold creations this Mother’s Day—we’ve got our eye on a certain set of earrings.
Mothers who have an eye for interior design will enjoy Jonathan Adler’s porcelain vase, or possibly Pols Potten’s colorful teacup set. Beautifully draped ensembles such as SemSem’s emerald green plissé-satin maxi dress also make great gifts for the mom who likes to party, while Saint Lauren’s loulou heart-shaped sunglasses will show her how much you love her, and Sleeper’s feather-trimmed crepe de chine pajama may just convince her to take a break from life for some relaxing shut eye.
For every mother there is a gift. Look through Vogue Arabia’s edit above for your perfect pick.
Read Next: Mother’s Day: 8 Wonderful Ways to Spend Time with Your Mom in the UAE

Bella Hadid       
Michael Kors’s autumn/winter 2022 show was all about making an entrance and so he had to call in the big guns to show the world how it’s done. Of course, when you’ve got the Hadid sisters on speed dial, this is no big deal. As well as Gigi and Bella, Michael called up fellow New York street-style maven Emily Ratajkowski, who lives in the glare of the paparazzi and knows how to, as Kors said, “strut [her] stuff”. Top models Irina Shayk and Natasha Poly completed Michael’s glossy posse, with rising runway stars Adut Akech, Paloma Elsesser, Jill Kortleve and Rianne Van Rompaey delivering the shoulders-back confidence Kors’s clothes require.
Emily Ratajkowski
Indeed, while Kors is known for his beloved brand of Uptown polish, this season’s conceal-and-reveal looks requires extra confidence to pull off. Take the enrobing teddy coats shrugged artfully off the shoulders to reveal a slither of a sequined dress underneath. This Hollywood-esque styling hack requires a mix of self-assuredness and sass to execute well. Ditto the hooded outerwear that gave off Kylie Minogue glamour when worn by Kors’s girls.
Gigi Hadid
For the Gen-Z supers, for whom midriff-flossing is common fashion parlance, this tantalising approach to getting dressed is all in a day’s work. For the rest of us, Kors lined his extravagant eveningwear in jersey to facilitate dancing and dashing for cabs when party hopping around town. “It’s about turning everything into a special occasion,” he said of channelling his joie de vivre into a collection made to have a good time. On the biggest model names living in New York City, who are quite probably clinking martinis with Kors in The Carlyle on a week night, this was a compelling proposition indeed.
Irina Shayk
Adut Akech
Paloma Elsesser
Rianne Van Rompaey
Natasha Poly
Jill Kortleve
Bella Hadid
Originally published in Vogue.co.uk

Animal print — a trend that emerges stronger than ever just when you think it is no longer around — is making a bold return for summer. Spotted all over the 2021 spring/summer runways, from zebra prints at Bottega Veneta and leopard prints at Tom Ford, the pattern holds plenty of style potential. Unconvinced? Take a look at Egyptian actor Yasmine Sabri’s leopard print maxi dress which made a strong case for the trend taking stars and It-girls by storm.
Wearing the pattern is all about the colors and the way the pieces are styled. While minimalists can add a statement patterned accessory to elevate their outfits, maximalists can go big by mixing and matching different prints. As it crops up nearly every season, it’s safe to say that animal prints are an investment and fashion risk all in one. If Sabri’s holiday look has inspired you, scroll through our edit of 10 animal print dresses you can embrace the trend in.
Read Next: 10 Sustainable and Size-Inclusive Swimsuits to Feel Good in This Summer

For his 40th anniversary show, Michael Kors designed a love letter to nightlife glamour and the theatre he has missed so much over the past year. Here’s everything you need to know.

The collection was devoted to dressing up
Photo: Courtesy of Michael Kors
“I think there might be a communal burning of yoga trousers,” Michael Kors said in a preview for the virtual fall/winter 2021 show he called “a love letter to urban life”. Filmed in New York City’s theatre district, the film didn’t only herald our post-lockdown return to getting dressed and going out, but Kors’s 40th year in fashion. For a self-proclaimed “theatre aficionado and freak” (“Listen, I stop over in London just to see a show because I want to see before anyone in New York does!”), celebrating his anniversary in lockdown simply wasn’t an option. As the vaccinations get underway and cities like New York and London gradually start rebooting their nightlife, Kors decided to devote his show – and indeed his collection – to a ceremonious twosome: dinner and a show.
The film was shot in New York’s theatre district
Photo: Courtesy of Michael Kors
Produced in support of the Actors Fund – to which Kors encouraged his audience to donate – the film opened with a star-studded cast of stage actors highlighting the importance of getting New York show business back in business. Featured on video calls, they appeared as framed pictures on the wall of Sardi’s where Kors traditionally goes for dinner before a show. “We all leave the restaurant, strutting down the street to show our finery before getting to the theatre. It’s my fantasy night out,” he said, and he wasn’t exaggerating. Models from Adut Akech to Naomi Campbell sashayed down the street to the Shubert Theater where Rufus Wainwright performed an unplugged medley in homage to the stage and the city, culminating in “There’s No Business Like Show Business”.
Archive-inspired garments were labelled with QR codes
Photo: Courtesy of Michael Kors
During lockdown, Kors has been speaking to clients around the world about their experiences and desires during the pandemic. “In the last two months, every woman says, ‘I want to get dressed up again. I wanna shine, I wanna feel glamorous’,” he said. A timeless sentiment, it inspired Kors to reimagine some of his own timeless classics from 40 years of fashion shows. “I didn’t remember that when I was young – foolish as we can all be when we’re young – I kept really bad archives. I gave clothes away. If a model said she really liked a dress, I said, ‘Fine, keep it!’ If a friend wanted a coat, I said, ‘Sure, keep it!’” Instead, he recreated a number of pieces from his memory of them, labelling each with a unique QR code for customers to scan and dive into its history. A shiny red coat, for instance, will take you to a website with films of Cindy Crawford carrying the original piece in the spring/summer 1999 collection, and Bella Hadid wearing the reimagined version today.
Eveningwear permeated the collection
Photo: Courtesy of Michael Kors
The idea of timeless was reflected through every garment in the collection, each evoking a universal and unchanging feeling of glamour, of going out, and being seen. “The idea of things that light up,” as Kors put it. It fuelled a collection constantly underpinned by eveningwear, both in full-length silhouettes with enough sparkle to light up New York, but also in day dresses and tailoring imbued with the glamour of night. “Legs, legs, legs,” Kors said of a look composed from a jacquard zebra skirt with a cashmere pullover and topped with an intarsia shearling coat. “I just feel like it’s the opposite of feeling schlumpy – it’s really celebrating that strut, walking into a restaurant and making an entrance.” Or, as he observed: “It’s the opposite of a woman with a tote bag.”
Kors included a “vaccination top”
Photo: Courtesy of Michael Kors
Kors’s timeless philosophy – both in terms of clothes and the art of evening glamour – was epitomised in a second-skin black sequinned body worn with a slinky trouser and a matching coat with plume trims chicly swung over the arm. It could almost have materialised in any decade, and evoked in its wearer – and her audience – the same allure of night-time opulence and thrill, a feeling reawakened as we emerge from lockdown. But while Kors was looking to a near and better future, his anniversary collection didn’t close its eyes to current affairs. Inspired by the cold-shoulder top Dolly Parton wore to get her vaccination, immortalised in a song on YouTube, Kors joked he had designed a “vaccination top” for the collection: a beige knit with a single cut-out shoulder.
Read Next: Michael Kors at 40: A Celebration of the Designer’s Life in Fashion
Originally published on Vogue.co.uk

From left: Carolyn Murphy opens the spring 2018 Michael Kors Collection show; Naomi Campbell walks in the 2021 Times Square show; the designer at the close of his spring 2019 show; Zendaya in Michael Kors collection at the Met gala, 2016; spreading the love at the spring 2017 show Photos: Getty Images; Alessandro Garofalo / Indigital.tv (far left and far right)Collage by David Vo. Photos: Getty Images; Alessandro Garofalo / Indigital.tv (far left and far right)
“To be honest with you, I’m a little kind of ‘pinch me’.” So says Michael Kors about his 40th anniversary, which he’s celebrating with a blockbuster fall 2021 collection reveal tomorrow. With characteristic ebullience, he adds, “I’m still kind of juiced to just see people on the street wearing what I design.” His cup runneth over: Michael Kors has fans everywhere.
Watch Michael Kors’ 40th anniversary runway show live below at 5pm GST/ 4pm KSA time.

What draws these customers to Kors, beyond 10-ply cashmere and a super-recognizable geometric logo, is the jet-set dream. A sun and fun ethos has always been a mainstay of the Kors brand, be it the flash of clear blue waters, the diamond sparkle of snow, or the pop of a flashbulb. Celebrities like Zendaya, Viola Davis, and Nicole Kidman flock to the designer not for the Cinderella treatment, but for red-carpet looks with just the right amount of dazzle that lets them shine.
He’s the quintessential New Yorker. “We are the birthplace of the life that is just warp speed,” he says. “I think quickly, I move quickly, I talk quickly. Our ethos has been about the movement of a life lived quickly and indulgence. So there’s comfort, which you need for speed, mixed in with the idea that I believe that most people have this sort of streak in them: that they want to indulge. As much as we all want to have a salad, everyone dreams of the chocolate mousse.”
Kors’s recipe for success, both personally and professionally, is based on the balance of opposites. As far back as he can remember, the designer notes, “there’s a part of me that’s very pragmatic, and then there’s a part of me that’s silly and indulgent.” Those contrasting forces meet in garments that are at once timeless and topical, luxurious yet democratic. Speaking of his process Kors explains that he’ll stick to neutrals when creating dramatic silhouettes, and leans towards “outlandish” colors or prints when working with simple lines. “Am I user friendly? Yes,” he says.
In the course of four decades, the designer has seen fashion and communication go global, and the speed of change increase exponentially. “The world is definitely spinning at a faster axis than it did when I started. [As fashion people] we talked about the rules changing for years, but I think we were just speaking to ourselves. We’d be like, ‘Oh yeah, there are no seasons, there’s no time of day. You can wear sequins to the office, you can wear sneakers at night, you can wear boots in the summer, sandals in the winter. And I think for a long time, we in the industry might have lived that way, but the public hadn’t started thinking that way. And now just all the rules are gone. There are no seasons, there are no borders. The notion of American fashion versus British fashion versus Japanese fashion versus the French—I don’t think any of that matters anymore at all, because I think we’re all plugged into the same things and information is so available and we’re all learning and stealing from each other. So it has gotten far more democratic, and I think more interesting.” Definitely more interesting in Kors’s case. Here, a timeline of his 40 fabulous years in business.

A drawing by Michael Kors. Illustration: Courtesy of Michael Kors
1959
Born Karl Anderson Jr. in Long Island, New York.
Michael Kors with his mother, Joan.Photo: Courtesy of Michael Kors
Circa 1964
Changes name on the occasion of his mother’s marriage to Bill Kors. “My mother said, ‘You’re getting a new last name, so why don’t you pick a new first name?” Appears as a model in advertising for cereal and household products. Sees his first musical, Annie Get Your Gun, starring Ethel Merman.
Michael Kors. Photo: Courtesy of Michael Kors
1971
Opens his first boutique, the Iron Butterfly. “I was real crafty. I had a little shop in my basement selling things that I made. I was 12.”
Michael Kors and his signature sunglasses.Photo: Courtesy of Michael Kors
1973
Becomes a mall rat. “I’m a suburban boy who, like, got a rush walking into the mall,” Kors once told Vogue. “I remember being 14 years old and saving up for something: the tissue paper, the shopping bag, the whole thing.”
Michael Kors, ready to hit the dance floor.Photo: Courtesy of Michael Kors
1975
“All of a sudden, disco hit. I was 16 and out came the platforms and the Fiorucci jeans. I went out every night.”
Bianca Jagger and Victor Hugo celebrating her birthday at Studio 54, 1977. Photo: Robin Platzer / Twin Images / & Online USA
1977
Skips his high school prom to dance all night at Studio 54, wearing, he has said, “a piece of raw-silk jersey wrapped into a diaper pant.” Enrolls at the Fashion Institute of Technology and works part time at Lothar’s, which he would later describe as “the Gap for the Guinnesses.” Is at Studio 54 the night that Bianca Jagger rode on a white horse through the club. Needless to say he was late to class the next day. “I have big Porsche sunglasses on, and the teacher says, ‘Well, thank you so much for joining us.’ Of course, the arrogance of 18, I said, “I’m sorry, but I was out at Bianca’s birthday party.’ And all the kids in the class looked at me and were like, Ugh, you’re gross.”
1981
Launches business in May. Shows his small collection of separates, made with the help of a tailor, to Dawn Mello, then at Bergdorf Goodman. She put the pieces, which Kors had hand-delivered driving his aunt’s Mercedes, in the store’s windows—a real coup. “I was 22, so I didn’t really realize the impact of [having the] windows going onto the Avenue at Bergdorf Goodman my first season in business. Now when I look back, I think to myself, Wow, this is the singular pinnacle store that is only here in New York City, nowhere else in the world, and what a way to launch.” December: The designer is profiled in Vogue. “Only 22 years old, Kors firmly believes American women want everyday clothes to be comfortable with dash. And, he makes a point of eliminating any detail that would be gimmicky,” noted the magazine. “I want to make clothes that won’t date,” the designer stated.
Susan Hess in a wool jersey coat, linen blouse, and wool crepe skirt by Michael Kors.Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, August 1982
1982
Soon came a write-up in New York magazine. “Michael Kors, 22, feels that fashion should be evolutionary, not revolutionary,” read the blurb written by Anna Wintour. “He plans to keep his collections small and interchangeable, stressing pared-down luxury.”
Michael Kors, 1983 Photo: Alan Raia / Newsday RM via Getty Images
1984
Presents first runway show, for fall 1984, at The Tower Gallery in New York, in which Iman walked. “Michael Kors is a man with a minimalist point of view, and he knows how to deliver it,” reported WWD. “I waited and I did not have a fashion show for almost four years. And honestly, I didn’t think anyone was going to come to the show,” the designer said in a 2021 interview. “I was like, Why would anyone come to see me? I’m new, and I’m small, and I’m somewhat under the radar. There’s a buzz, but I’m not a household name. And I remember at the end of the show, when I came out, I was shocked that not only did it go well, but there was actually an audience there that was excited to see what I had been doing.”
Michael Kors Collection, fall 1998 ready-to-wear Photo: © Maria Chandoha Valentino / Courtesy of Michael Kors
1988
“Fashion in the late ’80s really started to shift—we saw the emergence of the supermodel with Linda, Cindy, Christy, and Naomi. It was an incredible moment for American fashion. When these women hit the scene, you finally started to see personality, diversity, and variety on the runway. They just lit up the room,” Kors has written. He explored tailoring in depth for his fall 1998 collection, in which these models walked. See all the fall 1988 looks.
Nadège du Bospertus in a gingham look by Michael Kors, 1990. Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, February 1990
1990
Enters Chapter 11, recovers, launches the lower-priced KORS Michael Kors line in September.
Michael Kors Collection, fall 1991 ready-to-wear Photo: © Niall McInerney / Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
1991
The ceiling falls on Suzy Menkes’s head during Michael Kors’s fall 1991 runway show, presented in a loft in Chelsea. She was thankfully unharmed, but the incident precipitates the creation of a centralized New York Fashion Week. See all the fall 1991 looks.
1992 claudia phone Photographed by Arthur Elgort Vogue, July 1992
1992
Debuts Michael Kors Men’s with a show at Grand Central Station.
Shalom Harlow in New York City wearing a camel-hair coat and velvet leopard shift dress by Michael Kors. Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, August 1994
1994
Shows a fall collection that he later says was “all about legs, legs, legs, legs, legs.”
Kirsten Owen in a Michael Kors suit. Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, August 1997
1997
Named Creative Director for the house of Celine in Paris. “They’re the only quality French house that was known for their sportswear,” Kors later tells The Los Angeles Times. “They’re interested in real clothes that are expedient, comfortable, pragmatic, and push that luxury envelope. That’s what I do.”
Celine Dion performing at the Oscars. Photo: Timothy A. Clary / AFP / Getty Images
1998
March: Presents debut Celine collection for fall 1998. “I always thought I was such just a New York guy. I never in a million, zillion, trillion years thought that I would ever design and show in Paris,” Kors says, looking back. “The first season designing Celine, back in ’98 and, and showing in Paris, it blew my mind. It felt cinematic to me and I am a movie aficionado and suddenly, I felt like Kay Thompson in Funny Face.” Later in the month Celine Dion wears a Michael Kors for Celine gown while performing “My Heart Will Go On” at the Oscars. July: “I switch between a baseball cap and a beret with great ease,” said Kors of his transatlantic gigs, noting, “Paris is softer; New York is sharper. Doing the two collections is good for me. It allows me the two sides of my personality.” August: Model Carolyn Murphy wears Michael Kors for Celine on the cover of Vogue.
Rene Russo in The Thomas Crown Affair, 1999.Photo: ©MGM / Courtesy Everett Collection
1999
March: Naomi Campbell models a cape in Michael Kors’s fall 1999 collection that Joan Didion subsequently later wears in a Tina Barney portrait. June: Receives the CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year Award, presented by Susan Lucci. August: Creates Rene Russo’s wardrobe for the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. September: The theme of his spring 2000 collection is “Palm Bitch.”
Lisa Taylor on the go. Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, October 1976
2000
May: Writes a “Nostalgia” piece for Vogue about Arthur Elgort’s 1976 photograph of model Lisa Taylor driving. “I think it’s fair to say that you probably can’t get past the era in which you come of age,” he wrote. “When that photograph ran, it was a serious time, and an anti-fashion, anti-affectation moment—a jeans-and-T-shirt moment. To this day, my favorite clothes are still jeans, T-shirts, and sweaters. I love sweatshirts, I love men’s pullovers. But at the same time I don’t want to be taken away from the indulgence, perhaps the innocence, that I had before I came to the realization, which is a kind of disillusionment, that style ultimately emanates from the wearer. This is the question for a jeans-and-T-shirt person like myself: How do you not lose the pleasure? It’s a tug-of-war that’s always being waged at the back of my mind: a to-ing and fro-ing between the impulse to allow the wearer to transform the clothes, and vice versa. When the tension between these impulses is constant, that’s when fashion really works.” September: Opens flagship store on Madison Avenue in New York City.
Project Runway hosts Heidi Klum and Michael Kors.Photo: Nick Ruedel / Bravo /NBCU Photo Bank / NBCUniversal via Getty Images
2004
March: Presents final Celine collection, with a lineup that had, according to the program notes, “the sporty American simplicity of C.Z. Guest and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy mixed with the youthful European sophistication of Leslie Caron, Jean Seberg, and Audrey Hepburn.” December: Becomes a judge on the Emmy award-winning reality TV show, Project Runway.
Michael Kors Collection, fall 2006 ready-to-wearPhoto: Marcio Madeira
2006
Jay Gatsby and Ali McGraw, in Love Story, are the designer’s twin inspirations for fall 2006’s prep fest.
Official portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama.Photo: Joyce N. Boghosian / World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
2009
Dresses First Lady Michelle Obama for her official White House portrait. “We had made the dress for her [but] I had no idea where she was going in it or what she was planning on wearing it for. And not only did I feel incredibly proud, when I saw a First Lady looking that modern, that unencumbered, a First Lady in a portrait wearing black jersey, sleeveless, not a colorful suit with a broach, I felt so excited to be a part of this moment that I knew was a game changer. A huge game changer, not just for me as a designer or as even an American, but just for the world at large,” Kors later says.
2010
June: Becomes the youngest-ever recipient of the CFDA Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Anna Wintour. “I’m on the board at the CFDA. I remember sitting at one meeting and Diane von Furstenberg looked at me and she said, ‘Well, now we’re going to talk about the Lifetime Achievement award.’ And I said, ‘I think we have a lot of great ideas.’ And she said, ‘Well, darling, [there’s] one idea that everyone agreed on.’ And I said, ‘What was that?’ And she said, ‘You.’ I looked at her and I said, ‘No, that’s impossible. I’m too young.’ And she said, ‘It’s the work, it’s not your age.’ ” September: Nicole Phelps reports that Kors’ s company is on track to “break the $1 billion sales barrier this year.”
Michael Kos and Lance LePere on their wedding day.Photo: Courtesy of the photographer
2011
February: “The designer is marking his 30th year in business,” noted Phelps in her review of Kors’s fall 2011 collection. “Yes, he started young—at 19, in fact. Tonight, he’ll celebrate in the tony confines of Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle…. 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.” August: Marries longtime partner Lance LePere, vice president of Michael Kors Women’s Design. December: Takes Michael Kors Holdings Limited public with one of the most successful IPOs in fashion history. “Talk about never in a million years,” jokes the designer in a 2021 interview. “It was a little surreal ringing that bell, and realizing that my approach to design, and really my thoughts on how people should look, was suddenly going to actually explode to a broader audience, and coinciding that with launching Michael Michael Kors and seeing in every city that I was in, a handbag, a watch, a shoe.”
Michael Kors with model Karmen Pedaru in Shanghai. Photo: Kevin Lee / Getty Images for Michael Kors
2014
February: “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,” reports Vogue. May: Opens flagship store in Shanghai, China, and celebrates with a runway show titled the Jet Set Experience.
Michael Kors Collection, spring 2017 ready-to-wearPhoto: Alessandro Garofalo / Indigital.tv
2016
Then Vice President Joseph R. Biden presents Kors with the World Food Programme USA’s McGovern-Dole Leadership Award for helping to fight hunger globally.
Michael Kors Collection, spring 2018 ready-to-wear. Photo: Alessandro Garofalo / Indigital.tv
2017
“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, Vogue opines.”
Barry Manilow at Michael Kors’s fall 2019 show. Photo: Andrea Adriani / Gorunway.com
2019
The designer secures the rights to the Studio 54 logo and uses it in his 1970s-themed fall show that finished with a surprise: Barry Manilow performing “Copacabana.” Kors took his bow, reported Vogue, “with another legend of the era, model Patti Hansen, who closed the show in a metallic trouser suit.”
Vice President Kamala Harris in a Michael Kors Collection suit.Photographed by Tyler Mitchell, Vogue, February 2021
2021
Vice President Kamala Harris wears Michael Kors Collection on the digital cover of February Vogue. “I don’t have kids, so my designs are my children; my husband, and I feel that way about what we do. And I beamed with pride [when I saw the cover] and thought what a stupendous, stupendous moment for the country, for the world, for myself. Amazing. It sounds cliché to say it, but a pinch-me moment.”
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Originally published on Vogue.com