Michael Kors
Marc Jacobs
April 20, 2020
Narciso Rodriguez
April 20, 2020
Michael Kors was born Karl Anderson Jr. on Long Island, New York in 1959. He changed his name to Michael Kors after his mother remarried. He grew up with an affinity for fashion, redesigning his mother’s wedding dress at age 5 and making and selling clothes out of his parents’ basement as a teenager. He studied fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). He left FIT to work in the sales department at an upscale boutique in Midtown Manhattan and was later promoted to visual merchandiser.
After befriending Dawn Mello, the fashion director at famed department store Bergdorf Goodman, she convinced Kors to show his collection to the buyers at Bergdorf's. They bought and launched his collection in 1981. In 1997, Kors took on the post as the first ready-to-wear director of classic French brand Celine. He turned the fashion house around with successful accessories and a critically acclaimed ready-to-wear line. He left Celine in 2003 to focus on his namesake line.
In 2004 he joined hit reality TV fashion show Project Runway as a judge, where he became famed and admired for his witty and lighthearted persona. That same year he launched his lower priced line MICHAEL Michael Kors of ready-to-wear, handbags, and shoes, enabling his luxury lifestyle empire to reach a global audience. Today, this several billion dollar empire is still run by Kors, a singular designer with an innate sense of glamour and an unfailing eye for timeless chic.
