Michael Kors can’t really be called just a fashion designer anymore. He’s a full-fledged lifestyle brand, and that lifestyle is about to add color cosmetics and several new fragrances.
Kors says he’s driven by perfection, and that means a total look. “Beauty is always such an important part of my runway. When we put on a fashion show — after this many years — I’ve learned the layers and the steps. When I first start thinking mood of the season, beauty is part of it from the start.”
“The right dress with the wrong makeup is still wrong,’’ he adds.
Photo: Bloomberg
Kors’ runway show is one of the hottest tickets of New York Fashion Week, which kicks off this week to preview styles of spring 2014. Before that, Kors will be recognized by The Couture Council of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology on Wednesday for his contribution to the industry.He talked to The AP about developing lifestyle products in a recent interview.
AP: How is the process different for you in developing beauty products versus clothing and accessories?
Kors: With accessories and clothes, first I have to fall in love with whatever it is, but then I get practical. Is the bag too heavy? Can you wear a bra with the dress? With beauty, it’s more of a quick mood check ... It’s more gut. Immediately, if I smell something and it’s evocative, I go with it. What takes so long is the packaging.
AP: What about beauty products? Kors: When you buy something beauty, whether it’s a lipstick, nail polish or a new fragrance, it’s not a long shopping period. You either buy it or not. A perfume should take you away quickly — there’s no trying on pants with a shoe, rolling the jean just right, pretending you have heels on when you try on a skirt.
AP: If women can get a pick-me-up from a new lipstick, how can you get that same quick fashion fix?
Kors: Considering I wear the same thing almost every day, there’s not much I can do. For many men, the quick fix is the tie, and I don’t wear a tie, so I change my aviators (sunglasses). I’ll change the scale and color, whether it’s vintage leather, gunmetal or gold, that’s my mood quick-changer.
AP: There are three types of muses for your three new perfumes: Sexy, Sporty and Glam. Who are they?
Kors: There’s the ‘sexy,’ who is all about confidence. She’s not naked, she could be in jeans or a gown, but she’s sexy. There’s ‘sporty,’ the woman who could be headed to the red carpet or the gym, but she’s the type who just goes. And there’s ‘glam,’ who likes to be the center of attention.
AP: Did you have any of your famous friends in mind when you were making them?
Kors: I have a cast of characters that float by me, sometimes a friend, someone I work with, sometimes celebrity clients — all people who have those moods. For sporty, it’s Blake Lively, can’t you see her surfing and putting on a gown? Or Gwyneth (Paltrow) with her hair yanked back in a pony? Sexy is Angelina Jolie or Rihanna. They exude confidence. And then there’s the glamorous Jennifer Lopez. She’s never a wallflower. She goes big or goes home.
AP: Do you relate more to any one of the personas?
Kors: I’m sporty by nature in that I’m relaxed. I don’t like to be stiff, but I’m the most uncoordinated sporty person. Roger Federer and I won’t be playing sporty tennis anytime soon.
Feb. 9 to Feb.15 Growing up in the 1980s, Pan Wen-li (潘文立) was repeatedly told in elementary school that his family could not have originated in Taipei. At the time, there was a lack of understanding of Pingpu (plains Indigenous) peoples, who had mostly assimilated to Han-Taiwanese society and had no official recognition. Students were required to list their ancestral homes then, and when Pan wrote “Taipei,” his teacher rejected it as impossible. His father, an elder of the Ketagalan-founded Independence Presbyterian Church in Xinbeitou (自立長老會新北投教會), insisted that their family had always lived in the area. But under postwar
On paper, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) enters this year’s nine-in-one elections with almost nowhere to go but up. Yet, there are fears in the pan-green camp that they may not do much better then they did in 2022. Though the DPP did somewhat better at the city and county councillor level in 2022, at the “big six” municipality mayoral and county commissioner level, it was a disaster for the party. Then-president and party chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) made a string of serious strategic miscalculations that led to the party’s worst-ever result at the top executive level. That year, the party
In 2012, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) heroically seized residences belonging to the family of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “purchased with the proceeds of alleged bribes,” the DOJ announcement said. “Alleged” was enough. Strangely, the DOJ remains unmoved by the any of the extensive illegality of the two Leninist authoritarian parties that held power in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan. If only Chen had run a one-party state that imprisoned, tortured and murdered its opponents, his property would have been completely safe from DOJ action. I must also note two things in the interests of completeness.
Taiwan is especially vulnerable to climate change. The surrounding seas are rising at twice the global rate, extreme heat is becoming a serious problem in the country’s cities, and typhoons are growing less frequent (resulting in droughts) but more destructive. Yet young Taiwanese, according to interviewees who often discuss such issues with this demographic, seldom show signs of climate anxiety, despite their teachers being convinced that humanity has a great deal to worry about. Climate anxiety or eco-anxiety isn’t a psychological disorder recognized by diagnostic manuals, but that doesn’t make it any less real to those who have a chronic and
RSS