Michael Kors “South by Southwest, the optimism of an endless horizon and blue skies ahead. ” The speaker of this quote, Michael Kors, makes being successful sound easy with these poetic words. For him, that was just the case. Michael Kors, noted fashion designer, has been going strong in the industry since he was approximately nineteen years old. Through my undying love for his clothing and respect for his motivation and persistence to become who he is today, I look up to him as an individual and of course, designer. Kors was born “Karl Anderson Jr. in Long Island, New York.
He had always been interested in clothes and fashion and began to design clothes at the tender age of nineteen. He attended the Fashion Institute of Technology located in the heart of New York city in order to make his dreams of success a reality. After designing a collection of high-end clothing for the highly established and respected boutique Lothar’s, Kors decided to develop his own collection of luxury clothing. In 1981, Michael Kors’ first label was launched, entitled “Micahel Kors Womenwear” which was sold in high-end department stores such as Bloomingdales, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Sacs Fifth Avenue.
From this success, Kors was named the first ever women’s ready-to-wear designer/creative director for the French fashion house Celine (in 1997). With power over Celine, Michael turned the house around with a knock out accessory line as well as a fabulous ready-to-wear line. Although he was immensely successful at Celine, he left it in October 2003 to concentrate on his own brand, in his own name. His very first menswear line has been launched in 2002 and was getting such an overwhelming response he felt he needed/wanted to make more.
In 2004, Micael Kors launched the MICHAEL Michael Kors and KORS Michael Kors collections in addition to his runway collection.. At this point in time, he was incredibly well known in the fashion industry as well as the entertainment industry (actors began wearing his evening gowns to events). The difference between the two lines is not that huge: MICHAEL includes handbags, shoes and ready-to-wear apparel while KORS is considered the mid-tier line, which is between runway and MICHAEL, also including footwear and jeans.
Kors‘ collections are currently sold in his boutiques located in New York, Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta and more. Celebrities such as Heidi Klum, Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Garner have all graced the red carpets of award shows in Michael Kors eveningwear. When he was the creative director of Celine, Kors designed many outfits for actresses to wear on screen, such as Gwyneth Paltrow in the movie Possession. Advertising campaigns for Michael Kors usually reflect the jet-set sportswear that Kors fans everywhere are fond of.
Backgrounds of airports, African safaris and in the middle of the ocean on a yacht are common. Poses are very natural and blissful and create a sense of movement and leave the scenario of the photo shoot up to the imagination. The signature Kors style is easy to spot on the runway. Michael creates sophisticated designs for all ages and all body types including casual wear, street wear, athletic wear and eveningwear, making him the only designer ever to be so broad in his specialties.
He uses lots of layering and neutrals in his designs because he feels that they make a women’s form stand out more and create a sense of depth and interest. Michael Kors collections are still going strong today with a Spring 2010 line just launched during fashion week and a summer line on its way. He is consistently maintained an image of sophistication in his creations and shares this with people of all ages. Kors is currently also one of 4 judges on the hit reality show Project Runway, which I personally watch religiously.
This show gave him more recognition and respect and helped his career for the better. My opinion of Michael Kors is that he is one of the best designers of this century. Everyone who is into fashion design, or just fashion in general knows who he is and respects him for being the designer that he is. I very much enjoy his style of clothing and the fact that he creates outfits for people of all ages and shapes/sizes because most designers these days only make clothes for people size 0-6.
I think everyone should be able to have a special designer item in their closet no matter what size they wear and the industry respects him greatly for that. I wouldn’t be able to choose one piece that he had made and call it my favourite because, honestly, I love every single piece of clothing he has ever made. Being a fashion design major, I’m really interested in the way he comes up with his concepts for each collection and the way that he physically creates the clothing. Even though he has a team of designers, Michael Kors is always there every step of the creative process way.
