Michael Kors
by: Maddie Elder
Early Life
Michael was born August 9th, 1959. He is from Long Island, New York. Michaels father left him when he was very young so his mother said that he got to choose any last name that he wanted, he chose "Kors". When Michael was young he worked as a model for national campaigns for things like toilet paper, and lucky charms commercials. As he got older he would collect as much information about fashion as he could, from classes in school to doing research on his own time about designers and what was the "latest fashion" at the time. By the time he was ready to attend college he had decided on a fashion institute instead of a traditional college. Michael attended the Fashion Institute of Technology, but then later dropped out after two semesters.
How His Career Started
In 1981, when Michael was 22, he came out with his first spring women's collection. His collection was sold at very high-end fashion stores. For about a year after that, Kors did truck shows (private home shows) to show off further collections that he made. When Kors turned 23 he became fashion editor for Anna Wintour, then New York Magazine, and then editor for Vogue. For this sucessful start he was given many awards and gained many celebrity fans like Barbra Walters. In 1990, Michael was forced into bankruptcy, but soon got back on his feet and launched a lower-priced collection called, KORS Michael Kors. He then became creative director of Celine (french fashion house) and held that position for six years. In those six years he came out with his own brand and extended it to menswear. In 2003 he won the coveted Menswear Designer of the Year Award. In 2004 he became a judge for Project Runway and in 2012 he announced he was retiring from the show.