Michael Kors

Michael Kors

Born on 9th August 1959, Michael Kors is a fashion designer from New York. He is recognized for making women sportswear. Moreover, he is the Chief Creative Officer and Honorary Chairman of KORS (Michael Kors Holdings Limited). He is the son of ex-model Joan Kors and Karl Anderson. When Michael was five, his mother remarried Bill Kors. Michael studied at John F. Kennedy High School. His real name was Karl Anderson and when he was changing his last name to Kors, his mother gave him the choice to change his first name too to anything he liked.

Since a young age, Michael was attracted towards fashion. From his teenage years, he started designing and selling clothes from the basement of his parent’s house which he named Icon Butterfly.

Even when Michael was just a baby, he appeared in advertisements for products like cereal and toilet paper. Later on, when Michael’s mother was getting married, she asked her five year old son to design her wedding dress. From a young age, he was a fashion bug.

From 1977, he attended New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. However, he quit studying there after nine petty months and instead started working at a boutique where he got space to sell his apparel designs. In a short time, Dawn Mello of Bergdorf Goodman, which was across the shop Michael worked in, discovered Michael’s work and was impressed. She asked him to show his collection to their buyers and ever since his pieces have been selling at Goodman.

In 1981, Michael kors introduced his women-wear collection at Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord and Taylor, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, and Bloomingdales. Michael was considered the first designer to make ready-to-wear women’s clothes. He joined Celine, a fashion house of France as creative director in 1997. . While working at Celine, Michael launched successful clothing line and accessories that made the fashion store much more popular as well. He has also designed clothes for actresses, such as Rene Russo and Gwyneth Paltrow to wear in The Thomas Crown Affair, and Possession, respectively. Alicia Keys also wore a gown by him. In 2003, he left Celine to work on his brand.

Among the many celebrities who have worn Michael’s collections are Elissa, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Heidi Klum, Michelle Obama, Rachel McAdams, Jennifer Lopez, Joan Allen, and Jennifer Garner.

Michael was a judge on Project Runway which was nominated at Emmy and was shown on Bravo and later Lifetime.

In 2013, Michael Kors was included in the list of hundred most influential individual around the world by The Time. In addition to this, Observer also ranked him under the hundred most dominant New York fashion designers’ list.  A non-profit society, God’s Love We Deliver honored Michael with Golden Heart Lifetime Achievement Award. Moreover,  America’s non-profit association, the Cancer Research Institute presented Michael with the Oliver R. Grace Award. It was given for his Illustrious Service in Advancing Cancer Research. Furthermore, Michael was the youngest to receive the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award. He was also given the Fragrance Foundation Lifetime Achievement Reward. Besides all this, he was acknowledged as the year’s designer at a fashion show at Marymount University.

Michael was referenced in The Devil Wears Prada by Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). He was also mentioned in Dance a$$, a song by Big Sean. Michael Kors gave a guest appearance on Gossip Girl, a Fashion Week themed episode.