In the latest “Savage Fashion” podcast episode, WWD’s chief content officer Jim Fallon and fashion director Alex Badia sat down with Michael Kors to discuss his fashion-obsessed childhood and ascent to the industry as well as his return to “Project Runway,” filmed at the renovated and recently reopened Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.
“I always thought you had to be by the book,” Kors told Fallon and Badia. “You go to FIT, you graduate, you become an assistant working for another designer and you learn the ropes. There was never a doubt that I was going to have the Michael Kors brand and it was going to be my own thing — but I didn’t know it was going to happen so fast.”
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When Kors attended FIT in 1977, it was at the height of Studio 54. He walked into the famous nightclub and immediately felt right at home. “I was seeing the designers I admired out and about and seeing the women they dressed: Halston, Calvin [Klein] or Steven Burrows. I knew this would be my world.”
Kors shared that his brand’s aesthetic is personal to who he is — “I’m a bit of a contradiction myself. I am super casual but I love luxury and I love indulgence. I’m either the life of the party or I’m a loner. I’m levelheaded but silly. I always responded to this idea that people have different sides to them.”
While noting that fashion has not always been portrayed in the best light in film and on television, Kors was intrigued when he heard the premise of “Project Runway” — the show coincided with the launch of his more accessible Michael Michael Kors line and pulled back the curtain on how Kors thinks and operates as a global brand. Kors will be returning this season as a guest judge.
“I might get in trouble for saying this but I think American designers need to show in New York,” Kors said. “I think British designers need to show in London. I think Italian designers need to show in Italy. I think French designers need to show in Paris. There’s strength in numbers; we are a community. I’d like to see everyone back together and showing in New York together — it makes it more powerful. America is a place of such great diversity and fashion week should be that.”
Fallon and Badia also discussed the latest news, with the second-quarter earnings reporting from luxury groups largely in decline. Kering sales were down 25 percent in the first half, with consumers waiting for Demna’s start at Gucci in September with a see now, buy now strategy. LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton saw a 22 percent decline with Dior still in a transitional period with creative director Jonathan Anderson, but Louis Vuitton outperformed its other brands.