When Michael Kors and his husband, Lance LePere, were in Los Angeles recently, they stopped by The Way We Wore, Doris Raymond’s legendary vintage store. Pawing through the racks, he didn’t see much of his own work, so the designer asked Raymond, “Doris, why don’t you have any Michael Kors from the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s?” What Raymond told him was music to his ears: “My store is filled with everyone’s mistakes, with pieces that women bought and wore only once. Your clothes they keep.” The exchange prompted some contemplation of Kors’s early days—he happens to be one year shy of his 40th anniversary. He came across a picture styled by the editor in chief of this magazine during an earlier posting. Look one of his new pre-fall collection, a checked double-face cape worn with belted gauchos and boots, is not unlike that almost four-decade-old photo. “All that’s missing is the button earrings and the rouge,” Kors quipped.
The cape and the gauchos set the tone for a collection that gazed west for inspiration. The designer’s timing is spot-on. Country is trending. Orville Peck, Lil Nas X, and Kacey Musgraves all had big years, and Dolly Parton is ascendant once again. But even though everything was styled with cowboy boots, the attitude remained urbane and Korsian. Tailoring took the lead, as it did at his most recent runway show, but here he traded in a primary palette for the polish of black or buff. Long leather fringe and jet beading elevated a double-breasted coatdress and a cutaway coat with puffed shoulders respectively, and there was a sharp pin-striped sharkskin three-piece suit. On the softer side, he showed printed midi-dresses with built-in capelets and loose-fitting printed smocks layered over turtleneck bodysuits and boots. For evening, a black Chantilly lace prairie blouse tucked into leg-elongating pleated and cuffed black trousers struck the “it could be 1981 or it could be 2021” vibe he was going for.
