YouSaid · the spoken record

Michael Kors

lines on the record: 75
first: 2023-03-06
most recent: 2023-03-06
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“No, it was It was only women's fashion, no accessories, no shoes, no bags. It was a small collection of luxury, women's separates, you know, what we in the fashion industry say sportswear. A lot of people think that means jogging clothes, but it's really boils down to sort of this American invention of clothes that are versatile, you know, separate pieces that you can wear different ways. And that's what I brought to Berkdorfman back then in 1981.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, nervous. I had no idea about any of the logistics. How was I going to produce any of this? How do you cost it? How do you figure out your profit margin, your markups? Even like my style numbers, I had no idea. So I thought style number ones, style number two, style number three.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh yeah, absolutely. This was all very clandestine. But again, I didn't really know, is this going to actually happen? So I didn't want to leave my job. So I... Kind of very quickly, quietly. Went across the street on 57th Street to Berkdorf Goodman.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And the women who worked for me at Lothar's, the seamstresses, and the pattern makers, I had them make this very small collection. And once it was put together, I was still working at Lothar's, and I didn't know if this would really work out.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And she said, But you're doing the windows. And I said, Well, I do the windows. And, you know, I design the clothes and I'm on the selling floor. And she introduced herself and she said, my name is Don Mello. And at the time, I think she was the fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman, which was directly across the street from us. And she said, if you ever have a collection on your own, give me a call I'd love to see it. I literally went home that night and I started sketching my first collection. It was the impetus, even though I had no plan. I didn't really know how I was going to do this, where I was going to make it. I didn't think about any of that. I just said, okay, there is someone with interest.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I was actually doing the windows. I was physically in the window on 57th Street and Fifth Avenue. I think I had pins in my mouth and I was dressing a mannequin. And this very, very stylish woman walked into the store and she started talking to me and she said, these clothes that are in the window, they don't look the same as the tie-dyed French Lothar's clothes that we had seen in the past. Said who designs these clothes, and I looked at her and I said, I do.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was expensive. I will definitely acknowledge that what we were making was for a very rarefied clientele, but I think people also absolutely love the fact that they knew they were not going to see, you know, if they bought that raincoat that I put in the window, they weren't going to see everyone on the street wearing it.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Need raincoats. So I would literally run and buy some material and figure out what kind of cool raincoats was I going to make and I would put those in the window if they were successful we'd make more. So it's sort of a laboratory. Which was an incredible way to learn.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In house designer, no, not. You know, was I in the right place at the right time? The people who own the store, they knew that I, you know, understood the customers and I was a designer. So the next thing I knew, I was set up with a little workshop in Manhattan. So I first, you know, for the first time in my life, I had people who were making the patterns, following my sketches, and actually making the clothes. So I started buying fabric and buttons and zippers. And I mean, it was literally, I kind of learned about being reactive. So I don't know if my Windows had colorful dresses and it was, you know, April and I had colorful dresses in the window and suddenly it started raining cats and dogs every day and it was pouring rain, I said, okay, well, you know what? People are going to...”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Now what happened at Lothar's was funny, as I said before if it was really initially the sort of European French gap kind of for basics for the very rich. It was a very, very specific look, and as the 70s ended and tie-dye and hippie and all of that disappeared. We suddenly were left with the wrong product. And so I started designing really a full range of different clothes for the store, which included, you know, women's jackets that were more tailored, a more polished look. The 80s were starting to happen where people were going to be a little bit more dressed up. And I was just going by my gut, my instinct.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'll learn something if I got to work for someone else. And we had a lot of fashion insiders shop in the store. And there was a woman at the time who was a designer who I admired who she shopped in the store. Her name was Adri. And Adri, I said to her, I said, you know, I think that there is a possibility that I could go to work for Halston. And I love what he does. And I said, you know, maybe that would be a great experience. And she said to me, no, you know what you want to do. I can see it in the clothes here at Lothar's. And she said, just wait for the moment. And the opportunity will come, and you at that point should do your own thing.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't want to sound that I was overly confident, but. Even though I didn't finish school, even though I didn't really know the mechanics of really how the fashion industry truly worked, I knew that I wanted to do my own thing, have my own business, my own collection, and I had a very defined point of view. Funny enough, at the time, I was still at Lothar's and I had started designing the clothes that were in this store. I was also doing the visual merchandising, so I was doing the windows, the staff reported to me, the selling reporting came into me. So, you know, this was a lot for someone who was 20 years old. But I still for a minute thought maybe I should go to work for someone else.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think if I describe it now, everyone will say, well, I guess it's pretty similar. Everything was sort of timeless, but not classic, luxurious, but not ostentatious. So a lot of it was all about versatility. I always thought about comfort. I think I learned about that also being in a retail store and watching people trying things on. So that idea of sort of sporty glamour, that's definitely, you know, been my focus since I designed at Lothar's and since I started designing on my own.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I was knocked out by the whole thing. I mean, so schools suddenly, you know, between that and Studio 54, school was sort of like, why isn't school moving quick enough? Thought I was learning more when I went to work. And I decided that, you know what, maybe I'm going to skip the few steps. And I left school and I started working full time at Lothar's. and also for myself I always my favorite activity is to watch people on the street and the streets of New York in the late seventies and the 80s it was like a fashion show watching people and how they got dressed and how they how they express themselves with fashion”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think that I would do the expected trajectory. I'd go to school. I'd get a job when I graduated, hopefully working for a designer who I admired. I'd learn the sort of inner workings of how it all worked. I'd pick up pins. I'd fetch coffee. And while I was in school, I was working at a boutique on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street called Lothar's. And I got a part-time job there selling the clothes that they carried at the time, which were sort of, I don't know, you maybe call it the gap for the Uber-rich. It was jeans, t-shirts, and down jackets all made in France. A lot of it tie-dyed. And we had remarkable celebrity clients from around the world. So, you know, we had Cher and Diana Ross and Goldie Hawn, Rudolph Nuriev, Jackie Kennedy. I mean, it was amazing. And I was 18 years old.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, we were 17 years old. Who knew who we were? But we had youth, I guess, and energy on our side. And maybe I had Christopher Atkins hair from Blue Lagoon. Who knew? And I somehow knew instinctively that this was a remarkable moment in time. You know, the magic of being in a room and seeing all the fashion people that you look up to and worship. You know, Halston and Liza Minelli and all of these people. And then Bianca Jagger comes in on a horse and you say to yourself, well, this is the place I want to be. It was that moment that can happen that often. If it happened all the time, it wouldn't be a special.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Once again, I go back to the idea that I really never wanted to be like everyone else. Instead of going to my senior high school prom, that was in fact the night that I first went to Studio 54 with a friend. We went into Manhattan. We went out to dinner. I didn't even actually think at the time that it was so special that we were able to get in. Or why did we get in?”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I mean, for me, from the very, very, very young age. I grew up loving movies and the Wizard of Oz was, you know, when I was growing up, that was just the ultimate magic. And I really did think of Manhattan and New York City as Oz. And so there was never any question that I would be a New Yorker. So, you know, my heart would pound by the time I was a teenager, and I'd be saving up to go to Bergdorf Goodman or to go to Saxfifth Avenue and buy something. And it would just be the greatest thing in the world for me to have that special piece. And I always wanted something that other people didn't have. I never really wanted to be just like everyone else.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The funny thing is, although I, here I was, sitting and sketching women's fashions totally obsessed also with theater and music. So, you know, I'm definitely not on the Little League team. I was obsessed with how I was dressed I would have spent my last dime on getting something that was probably more outlandish than anyone else was wearing. There were comments for sure, but at the same time, I don't know. I think my family imbued me with this sense of confidence that, you know what, you're not the same as everyone else, and that's actually going to be a plus. And so I'm very lucky that I had that situation. You know, a lot of kids don't feel that in their home. I think for a lot of kids, you know, if they made a proclamation that they wanted to be a fashion designer, their family might say, well, what is that? What does that mean?”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that I was bitten by the bug even earlier than that. I grew up around people who loved clothes. They loved clothing and they loved the whole idea of getting dressed and looking great. My grandmother, although she was an assistant principal, she got dressed for work every day like she was going on a fashion shoot. My grandfather loved clothes, my aunts all loved clothes so there was part of the conversation plus I actually loved growing up. I loved to draw. So I was constantly in my room drawing and reading and when I was really, when I was growing up, it wasn't just fashion. I would sit and doodle houses, cars, all of that. But fashion was definitely, by the time I was, you know, 10 or 11 vogue would arrive and it was just a monumental moment. So it was definitely something that was always there.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think when I was around four, I went to a birthday party for a friend in the neighborhood. And so a bunch of kids were all at a birthday party and the adults are there supervising. As it turned out, the boy whose party it was, his uncle was there and his uncle produced television commercials. And he started talking to my mother and said, you know, I think he'd be great on camera. So she asked me if I was into the idea. And I said, sure. And the first thing I did was, in fact, a Lucky Charms commercial. I did a lot of things that, in fact, got tested in different markets, you know, Snapple, for instance. Of course, now we think of Snapple as iced tea. I did snapple apple chips, which that did not happen. We all think of Charmin as tissue paper. I did Charmin paper towels.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Getting She definitely was. I grew up at that point what I would say would be comfortably middle class. Middle class with some perks.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it's funny. My mother started modeling when she was 17. She did some advertising. She was sort of a runway model in local fashion shows. And I think because she was tall, she said she was always the bride in a fashion show. Where a lot of bridal gowns. And then she was sort of modeling in showrooms. So she was on 7th Avenue in the fashion district. And then by the time I was four or five Revlon, the cosmetic company, they opened a place here in New York that was called the House of Revlon. And I think it was meant to be their sort of salon. And they needed sort of the in-house hair models. And I think she wanted a more steady kind of gig, so to speak. So she became the in-house house of Revlon hair model for a while, where you became the sort of guinea pig for whatever they wanted to do to your hair.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I was going to be CORS. And I think at the time there was sort of this, okay, well, we want to use the initial M to commemorate my great-grandfather. And my mom said, you know, what name do you like? And I said, Michael, I want to be Michael. So I changed my trajectory.”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was writing payroll checks from my personal checking account. I went around to fabric resources and begged them, please, will you give me credit? I had no office. First time I got a phone call and the New York Times said, Oh, we have a reporter who would love to come and look at the clothes. And I said, well, they can't come here. And they were like, well, what do you mean? And I said, well, I'm literally sewing in my bedroom”
2023-03-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Michael Kors: Michael Kors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT