Michael Kors
Michael Kors
Michael Kors is a New York City-based American sportswear fashion designer. He is the honorary chairman and chief creative officer for his company, Michael Kors Holdings Limited, which sells women's and men's ready-to-wear, accessories, jewelry, footwear and fragrance. Kors was the first women’s ready-to-wear designer for the French house Celine, from 1997 to 2003...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFashion Designer
Date of Birth9 August 1959
CityLong Island, NY
CountryUnited States of America
You need to be curious one way or another as a designer. Your eye has to stay curious. I look at people and think about how they live. I think about bodies.
I feel unbelievably fortunate. How many people get to do what they always wanted to do and do well with it and continue to be surprised and see amazing places and meet amazing people?
It's funny when I hear people complain - particularly about the most fabulous parts of being a designer, like when you're getting ready to work on a show. I don't even know that I'm tired. I could stay up for six days straight! No drugs, no coffee, no nothing. I'm just so excited.
Fashion is not like the movie business, where you can have two great projects in a row and then say, "You know what? I'm going to take off eight months." What am I going to tell people? Wear last year's clothes?
In early days, I showed everything I made. There was no such thing as editing a collection. In the '80s, it got to the point where we'd have shows with a hundred looks. You'd want to order a pizza before it was over!
People always think that designers hate each other. And we're certainly a competitive lot, but we also enjoy each other's company. No one else knows what you're going through other than another designer.
The craziest thing about fashion people in general, not just designers, is that it's always, "Oh my God, you lost weight! I love your hair!" Or "Oh, you're so tan!" Or, "You're so skinny! I love your shoes!" These are fashion icebreakers. Everyone's always looking at each other.
When I'm not working I'm a slug - a full slug. I am not good at the in-between. I'm either fever-pitched or want to just pass out on a beach with a really sleazy book and eat a cheeseburger.
China is exciting because it is an extremely curious and interested market. What more can a designer ask for? The client here is bold and willing to try new things, which a country with a long fashion history wouldn't dare. France or England is weighed down by all these rules, elaborate etiquette, do's and don'ts. Things here move incredibly quickly.
the optimism of an endless horizon and blue skies ahead.
What are we going to do, sue our biggest customers?
We don't want to wear black every day, but we don't want head-to-toe color every day either. Green can sort of do both and I think that's what's great about it.
There are two kinds of designers: ones who are very happy locked in their office surrounded by their coterie. The last thing they need to do is to go to a trunk show; they'd go running for the hills. I not only enjoy it, I think, how do you design things that are applicable to life - unless you live it?
I am the oldest young designer in New York City.