Pop culture is in the midst of a full-on ’70s rewind. FX is releasing a limited series based on the relationship between the choreographer Bob Fosse and the dancer Gwen Verdon, tagline: “He was a visionary. She made him a star.” The Halston documentary was picked up at Sundance last month and will have its theatrical release later this year. And HBO is making a third season of The Deuce.
Michael Kors isn’t about to let this party pass him by. And why should he? He lived it. At a preview, he remembered tumbling out of Studio 54 way past dawn, grabbing breakfast at a diner, and heading straight to his job at boutique Lothar’s, where he washed the nightclub’s fake snow out of his hair in the bathroom sink. “New York was a pit, but we were dressed,” he said. “Optimism in the face of adversity, it’s the only way you can win.”
He isn’t the only designer who’s following the good times for Fall; the feathers and fake fur have really been flying at the New York shows. Kors had both, in the form of colorful boas and an intarsia chevron coat. The collection was informed by his West 50s stomping grounds, with Studio 54 playing the lead role. Kors secured the rights to the logo, and he made plentiful use of it, embroidering it on a sequin T-shirt dress, splashing it across a full-length puffer, and printing silk blouses for both guys and girls, worn unbuttoned to the navel in both cases. Andrea True was on the soundtrack singing “More, More, More”—of course she was. Kors knows all the oldies, and he isn’t one to shy away from camp. But there were also subtle cashmere knits in the mix—minimalist nods to Lincoln Center’s ballerinas that balanced the maximalism elsewhere. And he brought the lithe athleticism of those knits to dresses in sequined matte jersey. Dance-floor ready whatever the decade.
To finish, a black curtain pulled back to reveal a wall of gold tinsel and Barry Manilow. The crooner performed “Copacabana,” after which Kors came out for his bow with another legend of the era, model Patti Hansen, who closed the show in a metallic trouser suit. Could anyone else provide this kind of fun at 10:45 a.m. on a Wednesday morning?
