“My customers are big city customers,” said Michael Kors at a showroom preview the day before his autumn/winter 2023 runway in New York. “They want elegant, polished clothes that are functional, that move.” And certainly, the collection he unveiled on Wednesday was a pared back, ultra-wearable wardrobe of timeless investment pieces that felt metropolitan without being too corporate.
The women on his mood board this season were those who’d influenced him when he was coming of age in Greenwich Village in the 70s: Yoko Ono, Tina Turner, Cher, Gloria Steinem, Jane Fonda, Cicely Tyson, Aretha Franklin… and his mother. “The women who intrigued me then and still intrigue me today are women who break the rules, do things their own way. As much as they are strong and powerful and smart, they’re happy to admit they love fashion.”
