Night at the opera theme for Kors’ autumn-winter collection features elegant gowns draped in opulent coats
Five years ago, Covid prevented Michael Kors celebrating 40 years as a fashion designer, so nothing was going to stop him partying when that figure reached 45. “It’s crazy, I’ve been in fashion 45 years, but I’m only 32,” said Kors, 66.
The sweeping double staircase of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York became the catwalk for a fashion week show dedicated to the chic women of the city. On Kors’ best dressed list is the “amazing, remarkable” Rama Duwaji, the city’s first lady as wife of the mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
“The way she dresses takes me back to the first term of the Obamas, so smart and so chic,” Kors said before the show. “Before that time, a first lady portrait meant a suit with puff sleeves and a bow and some pearls, and then all of a sudden there was Mrs Obama, wearing a simple jersey dress with her arms bare. It was modern.”
Another “magical New York woman” on Kors’ list was Christy Turlington, who starred in the designer’s first advertisements as a teenage supermodel and, at 57, closed this show in caped, floor-length inky sequins. Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, back in the spotlight as the subject of a new Ryan Murphy drama, was on the mood board, along with Maria Callas – “the girl from Queens who became the greatest diva in the world”.
