Fresh from the Super Bowl in Las Vegas (where she accompanied her friend Taylor Swift on Sunday), Blake Lively made a triumphant entrance at one of the last shows of New York Fashion Week: trench coat and miniskirt printed in giraffe skin, the actress of Gossip Girl took her place alongside the other celebrities (among many, Katie Holmes, Meghann Fahy, Gabrielle Union, Rachel Brosnahan, Brie Larson and Vittoria di Savoia: "Michael Kors was the first to invite me, so I will always be ready when he calls ", he explained before the show in the former site of the legendary Barney's department store in Chelsea which is about to be transformed into luxury apartments.
On models of all sizes, ages and ethnicities (including Amber Valletta, Irina Shayk, Alek Wek, Guinevere van Seenus and Mariacarla Boscano), the Kors collection for next autumn winter descended from the spiral staircase in the centre.
"In the topsy-turvy world we live in, my job is to create clothes and accessories that make us feel strong and full of self-confidence," explains the designer behind the scenes.
There is always a muse in Michael's fashion shows, an iconic object or garment around which the various releases are based.
This time it's his grandmother's wedding dress that Kors had only seen in photographs for years and found in a wardrobe last year after his mother's death: "Modern, sexy, I fell in love with it. Like Sleeping Beauty (the title, a coincidence, of the Met's upcoming Costume Institute exhibition), inspired me to think timeless."
Thus began the itinerary dotted with other iconic women of the distant and recent past, from Carole Lombard and Jean Harlow to Liz Taylor in lingerie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof via Katharine Hepburn, arriving at Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Caroline Bessette Kennedy.
The tailored cuts of the hourglass-shaped jackets and loose coats in black cashmere and cappuccino-colored camel are made for a walk from the Guggenheim to the Carlyle, the bar where Bobby Short used to perform and used by Kors in the medley of the soundtrack, ending at Breuer, which after having been home to the Whitney, the Met and the Frick Collection, is preparing to be occupied by Sotheby's: another icon of a changing New York.
The fashion show is therefore a tribute to a city in constant metamorphosis but in which fashion aspires to be "timeless" as for the clothes designed by Kors for Celine and worn by Rene Russo in the Thomas Crown Affair: "The film is 25 years old, but you could wear Russo's clothes today."
Lots of satin and lots of lace, transparencies during the day and in the evening worn, when it's cold, under the bomber jacket or with large cashmere sweaters with a hood.
Among the accessories, patent leather shoes with stiletto heels, but also comfortable oxfords and a new minibag called Manhattan: it is shaped like an M which also stands for Michael.
In the grand finale, Grandma Bee's wedding dress is dyed black with the back closed by many small buttons, the long train divided in two to be raised when walking: because the Kors woman loves glamour, but also and above all practicality.
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