Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Make a Passover gift and support Jewish journalism. DONATE NOW
The Schmooze

Fashion Week: Michael Kors’ Runway

Michael Kors Image by Getty Images

Michael Kors displayed his newest line today at New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

The designer was born in Long Island, N.Y. to Joan Hamburger, a Jewish former model, and her husband Karl Anderson, a college student. His mother remarried when he was five and the designer later changed his name to Michael David Kors. Kors now lives in New York City and married his longtime boyfriend in August of last year.

Kors started his label in 1981 when he was fresh out of the Fashion Institute of Technology, and started selling his clothing at Bergdorf Goodman and Saks immediately. Women were attracted to his modern takes on classics and pieces that made them look at once classy and hip. Now, decades later, he has flagship stores around the country, and beauty, eyewear, fragrances, home, handbags, jeans, shoes and underwear lines. And of course, he has mega celebrity factor from his role as a judge on Project Runway, where his Jewish roots sometimes show. According to a New York Times profile he once told a young designer, “One of my aunts might have worn that dress. It’s, like, a good bar mitzvah moment.”

Before today’s show Kor’s tweeted the gist of his newest collection: “Graphic stripes, bold shades, and geometric glamour.” Two models wore black dresses with small triangle shapes in the back. A male model wore a green and black striped sweater with matching green pants. One model looked drop-dead gorgeous in a bright, red backless dress with a shiny but simple matching belt around her waist. In the finale models walked the runway according to the colors they were wearing, a move that made one Twitter user so excited she exclaimed via tweet, “OMG.. his ending is genius. Going by color, such a smart move.”

All, in all, his look was simple, preppy, but very fresh: The perfect all-American combo.

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.