Ninety minutes before he unveiled his spring/summer 2012 collection – one of the most anticipated shows in Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week calendar -designer Michael Kors’ model fittings looked pristinely organized. Everything was refined, structured, and uncluttered, echoing his design mantra.
Chaos typically seen backstage weren’t reserved for pros like Kors, whose more than 30 years in the fashion industry have netted him a growing global empire and a lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
In the middle of it all – amongst an assembly line of reporters, editors and television camera crews -bronzed and dressed in a simple black suit and sporting New Balance sneakers, Kors epitomized the casual jet-setting allure his label luxuriously captures. Tall metal racks hung his Safari-inspired collection that accentuated beautiful beading, strappy belts and graphic animalistic prints.
“This is my homage to modernist Africa,” says Kors, who was inspired by Lebombo Lodge located in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. “It is this glass box in the jungle of concrete, cement and steel, but the collection is the anti-thesis of that.”
The collection itself features rustic patchwork; easy shapes and artisanal textures that project an urban jungle feel to it. Creamy tones of ivory, earthy colours of olive and clay, and shades of amber and sienna dominated its colour scheme. Men were fitted in sarongs, paired with leather belts, while the women were attired as princess warriors in knits, coats and dresses that seemed ready to tackle the metropolitan wilderness.
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In this recessional fashion industry where many design houses have been closing their retail stores, Michael Kors, however, is one of the few luxury brands that have weathered the financial storm. Having celebrated three decades in business, his brand is showing no signs of a slowdown.
This past August, he opened his flagship Canadian store in Toronto’s Yorkville district – an area known for swanky Toronto International Film Festival parties and the occasional run-in with Hollywood starlets. In September, a Vancouver boutique was added to his Canadian roster, and three more are slated to launch in Montreal, Mississauga and Burlington by years end.
His expansion to Canada gives avid shoppers an access to an exclusive market. While some Canadians will cross the border south to obtain their luxury goods fix, there’s some retail therapy in the horizon as his Toronto’s Bloor Street store is the only Michael Kors store in Canada to carry his coveted crocodile bags.
To date the house of Kors includes about 200 stores in 74 countries with flagships in the world’s most glamorous cities including New York, London, Paris, Milan, Hong Kong and Dubai.
He credits his success to a strong vision and a design aesthetic accessible to everyone.
“I think the funny thing is the customer has to be convinced that the designer has a point of view, and that they can rely on something classic but also to be curious about what is new out there,” says Kors. “It is a balancing act.”
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