4 min readWhen Michael Kors thinks back to his 40th anniversary runway show in 2021, he remembers it fondly as a step toward a dream fulfilled. At the time, Covid restrictions had kept audiences from viewing the collection in person, though supermodels like Naomi Campbell and Bella Hadid walked the show, turning New York’s Theater District into a runway. “It was a bit of wishful thinking about how life would be once the city reopened,” Kors says. “Even though we were shut down, I knew that eventually the city would revitalize—and now life has not only returned, it’s returned with a vengeance.”
Five years later, dreams became reality as he hosted his 45th anniversary fall 2026 runway show in one of New York’s most famous cultural landmarks, the Metropolitan Opera House, at Lincoln Center this past February. His return to a theatrical venue marked a full-circle moment, a celebration of life lived in community with others. Kors recalled a recent trip to the opera house where young women in attendance were dressed to the nines, which for Kors was a clear sign of a post-Covid affinity for glamour. “People are celebrating going out, and they want to look great while they’re doing it,” Kors says. “This 45th anniversary show was a love letter to live performance, to New York City, and to going out and making an entrance.” The collection more than lived up to that promise, with leather opera gloves and draped evening dresses. In a fitting throwback, Christy Turlington—who starred in the designer’s first ad campaign—closed the show. Broadway stars like Rachel Zegler and Nicole Scherzinger watched from the front row before heading across the street to another Manhattan institution, P.J. Clarke’s, to celebrate with champagne toasts and a serenade from Rufus Wainwright.
A look from Michael Kors’s fall/winter 2026 collection.
For Kors, famously a patron of the arts, choosing the space as a backdrop for his collections was intentional. Live performance and fashion have always been connected for him, particularly through movement. Just as a performance changes when experienced through a screen, clothes lose something when reduced to a still image. That idea was central to the brand’s 45th anniversary collection. “We don’t live in a still picture, we live in a moving video,” he says. The transporting power of live performance is worth fighting for, particularly as financial support for the arts has been faltering. “We have very few times in our lives when we are in a communal situation,” Kors says. “Anything that allows us to unplug and experience something magical with other human beings is something we can’t let disappear.”
There is another somewhat fantastical engine that fuels Kors: New York. Throughout the brand’s history, he has captured the essence of the city’s dynamic style. “New York is always changing,” the designer says. “The energy has always been a source of inspiration.” Describing the city’s fashion scene as “contradictory,” even comparing it to a “big bowl of potato chips with caviar,” Kors understands the balance between function and glamour, discipline and indulgence. This dance between those opposing impulses is what gives New York its unmistakable character. “When things are strictly casual, it feels boring, and when they’re strictly glamorous, it feels too special for daily life.”
Janice Dickinson models a look from 1983.
That balance of ease and enchantment has been foundational to the Kors brand since its inception. In a review of the brand’s first runway show in 1984, WWD defined the collection as “haute, classic streetwear” and “elegant but minimal,” sentiments that the designer still identifies with today. “When I read things that were said about me when I first started, you would say, ‘Wow, he’s still using that same playbook,’ and I am.” But while his design ethos has remained steady, Kors is sympathetic to how culture, and thus fashion, has drastically changed. “What is considered casual now versus what was considered casual in the ’80s? Night and day.” From how clothes were designed to how they were styled, the differences were drastic. “When I started,” he points out, “there were no stretch fabrics—jeans didn’t stretch.”
To the untrained eye, Kors’s staple designs, like a camel trench coat, a hand-knit black cashmere sweater, or a flattering red dress, may seem simple. But each design, fabric, and color choice is laced with deep sentimentality. “I love anything that has the possibility of interpretation,” Kors says. “When it comes to color, black is limitless for a designer, and as far as bright colors, red is always what I go to. Red is life-affirming.”
Kors at a runway show in partnership with Holt Renfrew in 1990.
When Kors thinks back on where it all began, his mind goes to Studio 54. He skipped his high school prom to go to the famed disco, and says that was the night that he knew he wanted to be a fashion designer. “Seeing people move in their clothes, feel confident, understand their own sensuality—that was something you saw at Studio 54,” he says. “It really represented the best thing about New York: the mix of people. People from every background, every language, all together in this magical space. And the cool thing was that there was no social media and no judgment, so people could truly let go and have a good time.” Kors is acutely aware of a cultural craving for togetherness and community. Through his designs and runway shows, he aims to highlight the beauty, comfort, and even theatricality that come with living life authentically with one another. Studio 54 has since been turned into a theater, and Kors relishes, once again, New York’s ability to reinvent itself. Voilà: magic.
Lead image: A theatrical look from Michael Kors fall/winter 2026.
A version of this story appears in the November 2026 issue of ELLE.
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