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TV, Parties -- and Designing, Too
For Michael Kors, the rise of celebrity in fashion brings a tough juggling act; cooking pasta with Martha Stewart
By
TERI AGINS
September 8, 2007; Page P1
By the end of New York fashion week, which wraps up Wednesday, designer Michael Kors will have conducted at least 45 interviews, attended two book parties and appeared on stage at a "Fashion Rocks" pop concert in front of thousands at Radio City Music Hall.
Sandwiched in between all the publicity: the designer's spring 2008 fashion collection on Sunday.
The job of a fashion designer used to be about designing clothes. But lately, it's no longer enough for a designer to push high-toned intellectual looks to get the attention of critics. Instead, the most successful designers are those who are telegenic, media savvy -- in short, celebrities in their own right.
One of the masters of this game is the 48-year-old Mr. Kors, who has parlayed his role as a professional critic on TV reality-fashion show "Project Runway" into a perch as one of fashion's most successful media stars. Since he began the show in 2003, the platinum-blond designer is often stopped on the street and in airports by fans brandishing cellphones to snap his picture. On Martha Stewart's TV show in February, he talked fashion and whipped up a spaghetti-and-meatballs dish in the kitchen. Editors from Harper's Bazaar and Elle Décor magazines ask about his favorite vacation spots, his choice of flowers and "what I am going to serve at a summer barbecue," he says. "It's just crazy."
The designer-as-star phenomenon has changed the business of fashion. Winning public attention has become an integral part of many designers' business models. It's also raising questions about the kind of preparation needed for the next generation of designers.
Indeed, many designers are discovering that juggling public appearances with creative obligations can be difficult. The reality of so many media obligations often means a grueling schedule for artistic people who never saw themselves as entering show business.
Women's contemporary designer Nanette Lepore says that other than the backstage interviews she does after fashion shows, she doesn't do too many media events. "I don't have the infrastructure in my company to be out all the time," she says. Retailers are often pushing her to do more personal appearances, "but I resist. I get a little nervous," Ms. Lepore says. "I feel like it's something I have to do more now to get my profile out there, but it is not my favorite thing."
Mr. Kors, a colorful speaker who is generally unflappable, clearly enjoys his celebrity.
The new name recognition gained from "Project Runway" has helped fuel growth of his company, which has sales of about $400 million wholesale this year, according to a Michael Kors spokesman. The publicity from the TV show came just as the company was rolling out 12 "lifestyle stores" in malls over the past three years. The boutiques feature a range of Michael Kors clothes, handbags and accessories, and also includes items from his lower-priced Michael by Michael Kors line.
Steven Kolb, executive director of the Council for Fashion Designers of America, the industry's trade group, says that in today's media obsessed society, designers need to be personable and quotable. In the annual design competition the CFDA holds with Vogue magazine, "the judges are acutely aware of their personalities and social skills as well as how talented they are as designers." He says the typically reserved designer Phillip Lim, who won the 2007 CFDA award for best emerging women's wear designer, has made "remarkable improvement" and "has become more comfortable in that [public] role." Mr. Lim declined to comment through his publicist.
Fashion has long had designers who attain household-name status, including Halston, Valentino and Bill Blass beginning in the 1960s. But while their names were familiar, their products were mostly beyond the reach of most consumers except for a handful of items like fragrances and bed linens.
What's different now is how mass-market Mr. Kors and many of the others have become. They're not just well-known, their wares are widely sold -- partly thanks to the rise of cheap-chic retailers like Target.
Mr. Kors has had a number of incarnations during his three decades in the business. Starting in the 1980s, he mingled with the young society crowd and ventured to cities such as Atlanta and San Francisco doing trunk shows to meet clients. Later, he weathered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and then was recruited by French luxury-goods giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton to design the Celine brand in 1997. LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault expressed his pleasure in 1999, saying that Mr. Kors "is very interested in commercial success. He goes to the Celine shop to talk to the customers."
Also in 1999, Mr. Kors discovered how powerful personal publicity could be to his brand. E Entertainment ran a documentary on him that year, helping elevate his profile. Around that time, LVMH bought a 33% interest in Mr. Kors's eponymous high-end collection and launched his signature fragrance, which proved to be a hit. "The exposure from that one program was bigger than any of us had realized," he says.
After his contract ended in 2002, Mr. Kors parted ways with Celine to return to New York to concentrate full-time on his own label, which was acquired by Designer Holdings, the investor that masterminded the Tommy Hilfiger juggernaut in the 1990s.
Through the years, Mr. Kors's designs have also evolved. He made his name at upscale retailers creating sumptuous cashmere jackets, turtlenecks and sporty slacks -- clothes that didn't generate much buzz for his brand. But Mr. Kors was attuned to the Hollywood zeitgeist. He has become fixated on dresses and now creates about five times as many as he did 10 years ago.
Dresses are particularly important to Mr. Kors because movie stars wear them on the red carpet and on the covers of magazines. The more arresting the dress, the greater chance of publicity. "You have a hot actress with this gorgeous face, but maybe she is 5-foot-3 and has figure flaws," Mr. Kors explains. "So you put her in a dress that shows her bare arms and a bit of cleavage -- in a bright color. In order to make noise on the newsstand, you have to bang some pots."
And therein comes the domino effect: the more interest people have in celebrities, the more they love fashion -- and the more they become aware of designers like Mr. Kors. Celebrities like Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez, Fantasia, Jennifer Hudson and Debra Messing have all helped draw attention to Mr. Kors's designs.
When Mr. Kors showed up at a Nordstrom store in suburban Los Angeles recently, he spent two hours signing autographs on fragrance boxes and "on every piece of paper that wasn't nailed down," he says.
