Why does michael kors wear sunglasses at fashion shows

People go through different cycles of personal style. When I was 18 or 19 years old, whatever came my way, I went there. I wore leg warmers, army hats, triple-wrap belts, shoulder pads, no shoulder pads, zoot suit pants, skin-tight pants. And you have to try different things to discover not only the persona that you want to present, but the kind of life you want to live. If people are the picture, then the best clothes are the frame.

Jackie Kennedy understood the concept of having a uniform better than anyone else. She knew clean lines worked for her, and she never wore fussy patterns. But if you look closely, the length changed and the shoulder line changed. Those are the things that kept it relevant. Because really, at a certain age, the gloves are off.

They say Kate Moss is the only one who can look good smoking. Well, Miley Cyrus is the only one who can look good twerking. You've been friends with Vera Wang for a long time. What's your funniest adventure with her? No one remembers, but Vera and I collaborated on a bridal collection once, when she first opened her bridal shop. I made little stretchy minidresses and big silk crepe blazers.

Needless to say, they didn't become that season's must-haves. The trunk show ended up being Vera and me drinking champagne and eating too much Sylvia Weinstock cake.

We were a little ahead of the curve. Who are you obsessed with right now? Angelina Jolie. She's the consummate elegant juggler. I heard that you do Pilates. Is it true you wear your sunglasses during class? I've always said that head-to-toe black and black aviators can work in any situation, from the red carpet to the gym. But I usually have my instructor come to the house, so you'll never know. Very few designers have mastered the art of mixing fashion with business and stayed in fashion for almost half a century — but Michael Kors has.

What about being discovered by legendary fashion buyer Dawn Mello while he was a skint Long Island fashion school dropout? Or maybe his canny choice of sending model Iman down the runway at his very first show in ? Or what about how he went from branding powerhouse to bankrupt — and then climbed back from the brink? These are all stories about Michael Kors. But the story that Michael Kors wants to tell you is this: he is not here to design haute couture whose only purpose is to look pretty.

He is a designer in the truest sense of the word, in that he creates clothing that functions in the real world. Because for all his billions of dollars, and his decades of work in the fashion industry , which changes on a whim, Michael Kors knows one thing for sure: what women want.

In April this year, Kors marked his 40th anniversary in business with a show that combined his favourite things theatre, fashion with a sense of optimism and hope for a revived, reopened New York City. Supermodels Naomi Campbell, Shalom Harlow and Helena Christensen were dressed in updated, dialled-up-to-eleven versions of archival Michael Kors pieces, walking down Times Square and into various Broadway theatres.

It was, critics noted, the perfect welcome back to fashion. A walk in your neighbourhood, you know, turned into a special occasion. Walking into a restaurant, a special occasion. It was the opposite of during lockdown, where we all tended to take all of the occasion out of getting dressed. I really wanted this to be an homage to special occasions, not in the ballgown sense of the word, but feeling polished, feeling glamorous.

He is steadfastly, proudly democratic in his appeal and approach. I was in the fitting room. I could see what women wanted. I got to see first-hand, does it work?

Does it not work? Six months in, Dawn Mello, a legend of the New York fashion scene and, at that time, fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman she would later discover and hire Tom Ford for his history-making post as creative director at Gucci , stopped by. He did, taking a friend with him to model the looks. Six outfit changes in, Mello stopped him: would he design a range for Bergdorfs exclusively? Sure, he told her: as long as his clothes featured prominently in the window displays, he was able to make personal appearances in the store — oh, and could Bergdorfs finance the collection?

Mello agreed, and a star was born. But 57th and 5th In , his first collection hit the floor of Bergdorfs, and was a smash. He fitted in neatly with his contemporaries: Donna Karan, who made simple sexy; Ralph Lauren, who made preppy sexy, and Calvin Klein, who made, well, sexy sexy. As for Kors? He made women sexy — full stop.

Any woman — every woman — fits the bill. To me, the most important thing about what I do is seeing something in real life.