There’s a storm this week at the federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan with the hearing over the FTC’s challenge to Tapestry Inc.’s $8.5 billion proposed takeover of Capri Holdings, parent company of Michael Kors. But you wouldn’t know it from the demeanor of the man himself, who is always sunny.
“Is it rustic? Is it opulence? It’s rustic opulence,” Kors said during a preview of his spring 2025 collection, summing up a seasonal trend like only he can.
“I think people are in the mood for something that feels special, but that you can wear all the time,” he said addressing the more cautious consumer amid the luxury slowdown.
On the designer’s mood board were snapshots of romantic Mediterranean beaches, stills from Netflix’s “Ripley,” and 1990s black-and-white photos by Herb Ritts of sultry supermodels, all in his dark, earthy collection palette of black, ecru, hemp, peanut, cactus green, maritime and ice blue.
The retellings of “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” from the original Patricia Highsmith 1955 novel, to the Gwyneth Paltrow-Jude Law 1999 film, to the streaming version today, got him thinking about clashing the romance of the 1950s with the sensual streamlined simplicity of the 1990s, and today’s yearning for something joyful without it being a cheap thrill.
So there were winning classics with made-in-Italy artisanal extras, like a dark denim circle skirt hand-embroidered with denim flower petals, a remarkable-looking tan “lace” pencil skirt crafted from leather paillettes, and a black double face cashmere T-shirt and skirt set dotted with raffia pinwheels that rustled when they moved.
Some of the craft is just for her, a little personal luxury if you will, Kors said of an off-shoulder sequin dress that from a distance appears brown, but on closer inspection is a deeper, more layered tortoiseshell.
“Nothing is flat, everything has texture or dimension,” he said, pointing out brown slide sandals, bucket bags and floppy hats with playful raffia fringes and the show-stopping black raffia “fur” jacket previewed for WWD’s cover.
Even the classic crisp white button-down shirt was given special treatment. “I think the world lives to go out to dinner, and back in the day, people like Bill Blass used to call it tabletop dressing,” he said of drawing the attention waist-up with a portrait-collar shirt constructed to sit back on the shoulders. “I love the gesture of clothes, but in real life you’re not taking a normal shirt and pulling it off your shoulders,” he said.
Tapping into the week’s sportif trend, Kors used swimwear as everyday wear, styling a sexy maillot as a bodysuit under a wide-belted black raffia party skirt. He fused a camel cashmere fisherman sweater with a fringed raffia miniskirt, reimagining the sweater dress, and paired a crushed ecru silk anorak with a floral circle skirt for a high-low, casual-dressy dichotomy.
Does the new, albeit earthy, embellishment spell the end of quiet luxury? “Versatility is not a trend. Banality? Well, I don’t know that anyone needs banality when they’re buying designer clothes,” Kors said. “But at the same time, if you wear something that’s too opulent, you wear it once. I love simplicity, but I’ve never understood austere. I like warmth. I like comfort, I like personality, and I think that all disappeared a little bit.”
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