Michael Kors: ‘I never imagined I would walk to a Michael Kors store in Manila’

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine STAR caught up with Michael Kors at a suite in the Peninsula Shanghai. Here are excerpts from our interview:

PHILIPPINE STAR: Why did you decide to hold the Jet Set Experience here in Shanghai?

MICHAEL KORS: Shanghai because when we think about the fast life, you know New York is certainly the fast life; Manila obviously is a fast, quick-paced life, but no city has the speed and the curiosity right now that you find in Shanghai. So I thought it was the perfect opportunity to celebrate the idea of living the fast life.

What do you think of the market here in Asia?

For a designer, it’s most interesting when people are curious about things that are new, things that are changing. If women and men have so many rules and they’re not ready to experiment, quite honestly, as a designer it’s not challenging. Last night, in fact, we were out walking, and in 20 minutes, I saw two young girls, one wearing a bright yellow long dress, with a yellow handbag and then 10 minutes later, I saw another young girl in a yellow mini-dress and yellow shoes. And I said to someone I was with, “That’s incredible that we just saw these two girls wearing yellow.” And he said, “What do you mean?” I said, “Normally people would say a Chinese woman should never wear yellow, it’s not her color. But people here don’t have the rules, they are curious about what’s next, what’s new.” So I think that’s always the most interesting kind of market, whenever people are curious — thirsty and curious. That’s a perfect combination.

What are some of your personal milestones from when you began to where you are today?

Well, simplistically, my first season in business — seeing the windows go in on 5th Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. I was 22 years old; that was amazing. Probably my first season at Celine in Paris, I never thought as an American designer that I would show a collection there. Opening the stock exchange in New York when my company went public — again, it’s never anything that I dreamed about. Probably seeing Mrs. Obama for her first portrait wearing Michael Kors, it was a total surprise. We made the dress for her but they did not tell us what it was for. I never feel as though I’ve seen everything. Because something is always changing, something is always different, something is always new. The world is getting smaller. When I first started, we thought that global meant Canada — Toronto (laughs). I never imagined I would walk to a Michael Kors store in Manila or in Sao Paulo. The world has gotten smaller, so there are always surprises, which is great.

What was your thought process when you were designing for Michelle Obama?

I think when I design anything for Mrs. Obama, it’s the same way as how I would dress any woman — or any man. Find what is the best attribute about someone — everyone has the best part of them and then there are the other parts of them that aren’t the best. Mrs. Obama has fabulous shoulders, the arms that everyone dreams of, great skin, and she has height. So she looks great in softer, longer clothes and she looks great when something shows off her shoulders. And she also likes comfort, so automatically for the portrait dress, we thought, okay, we want to find something that’s jersey, that stretches, but still holds its shape and something that shows off her shoulders. She looks very good in color but she looks very glamorous in black. So really it’s finding a frame for the woman; she’s the picture, I make the frame.