Michael Kors fall 2021

Well... one might say this is the great American comeback! Mr. Kors  has  returned to what made him a lauded and applauded designer.... slick, tailored, simple, minimalist, ageless clothes with its roots in American sportwear. This collection is in stark contrast to those of ...........well.... the past 10 or 20 years when the sweetheart of fashion media thought he wanted to be Michael the trend driven!

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Yes, some will yawn and say what’s new here ...... what’s new is that these are clothes meant to be worn not just to be looked at and they are timeless and do not require an instruction book on how to wear nor do they require any blah blah blah ... this is Kors at his core and his finest. They are a reminder of what was with a tweak here and there.

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Yes, the media will fawn and carry on about the spectacle of it all but when you’re a billionaire you can create spectacles. Just ask Monsieur Arnault! This is a collection that   conjures the idea that we will all have some sort of normalcy to return to once this pandemic dark era has passed.

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I say BRAVO to Michael for having the good sense to return to clothes that can and will sell even to clients who swore they’d never wear Kors. Less is more here and it works flawlessly!

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on the home front.. meet Norman Ambrose

www.looks.love/us 

OR

At some point around 5 years ago I was invited to the show of a designer I had never heard of. As luck would have it, the designer was Norman Ambrose and it was at that point that my infatuation and coverage began. I was awed by a young man who understood and possessed the skillset of master dressmakers, designers and great couturiers. The clothes reflected an astounding comprehension of why women would buy his clothes as well what would make a woman exquisitely dressed. Some might say he is an old soul or born too late but as Diana Vreeland said “...Don’t think you were born too late. Everyone has that illusion. But you aren’t. The only problem is if you think too late?” 

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To my utter delight Norman carried the torch for clothes that befit the women that can afford them and wish to look a certain way. Yes, times have changed,  but to me the one thing that remains constant is that a woman still  wants to be beautiful, feel beautiful and be admired and complimented when she enters a room. Norman offers women these opportunities.

His career has evolved from where he started but the young man has adapted and forged his new path by adhering to his brand’s DNA and with a skillset and taste level that has propelled him to his present situation. So … with all this praise and laudatory talk, it’s now Norman’s turn to speak of his brand and the state of fashion as he sees it …. In his own words ….

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Jeffrey Felner:  Can you tell us briefly how you arrived at your present professional station?

Norman Ambrose: Many years of dedication and hard work!  My life’s mission is to honor the women I love and share that love with all women, this credo drives me daily. I have a passion for making beautiful clothes and love the creation process. I’ve been in business nearly 10 years now and it feels like the blink of the eye.

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JF: Do you have any mentors or style icons who influence your work and why them?

NA: I think of my clothes as timeless and tend to draw from women who embody this ideal. For example, I have always been captivated by Jacqueline Kennedy and her sister Lee Radziwill. They embody a timeless, cultured beauty where refinement and an effortless spirit are in complete 

harmony. 

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JF: If you could invite any 5 people to dinner who would they be and why?

NA: Assuming this would be one of many dinners I am to host; here are 5 that come to mind in the immediate. (For seating purposes, I’ve selected two couples and then a single that would sit at my side.)

Guests 1 & 2- Gloria Swanson & Rudolph Valentino- I have a fascination with old Hollywood beginning with the silent film era. Both Gloria and Rudolph would have many fascinating stories to re-tell of their zenith days in films, and to listen would be magic.

Guests 3 & 4- Princess Diana & Dodi Al Fayed- Lovers who’s lives ended far too young and in such tragic circumstances, it would be wonderful to hear firsthand what it is they loved about one another and what life was like at the time of their untimely deaths.

Guest 5- Lastly but certainly not least would be the god-mother of fashion herself, Diana Vreeland. Her witty sense of humor and natural gift of story-telling would make her a charming dinner companion to hold court with. 

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JF: There is no doubt that the fashion system is broken; if there is anything or a few things that you would or could change what would they be and why?

NA: The fashion industry is undergoing a paradigm shift. I don’t view the fashion industry as necessarily broken but rather as an opportunity. For the past decade the industry has experimented with discounting, fast fashion, social media, more is better and on-line selling. Trying to navigate all these waters, it is my belief that many brands lost focus and forgot who they are as a brand or made missteps with their customers that cost them dearly. We are in the digital age and navigating the waters to determine where the next best thing in fashion will fall.

As a young brand and designer, I face many of these challenges. In speaking with friends in other industries, they also face some of the same challenges the fashion industry does, fast pace, lack of innovation, funding, mentoring, and a platform. So I view it as everyone is trying to figure out the digital age. For me and the brand, it comes down to product and the experience that you provide your customer. I just stay true to myself and design beautiful product that can be worn by my customers, to make them feel enchanted, carefree, and confident. The brand developed a strategic direction and we navigate the waters like everyone else but keep asking the question of ourselves “is this our core, is this who we are?” Being centered allows the brand and I to guide the company at a time when the waters are uncertain around us.  

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JF: Let’s speak of internet sales vs. brick and mortar; how do you view those points of sale and why?

NA: We are witnessing a cyclical cause and effect with relation to internet sales and brick & mortar. For example, let’s take the traditional department store. The department stores as we know them are trying to compete and maintain their bottom line as a large number of their customers switch to online purchasing for a majority of their consumer needs. Unfortunately, the in-store experience is being greatly affected. We’ve seen the loss of customer service, a lack of associate knowledge, a limited assortment & sizing, lack of differentiation between the stores, and the dilution of brand messaging affecting how the customer connects with the products. This downgrade and lack of differentiation has discouraged consumers from purchasing in store and justified the ease at which they enjoy purchasing the same products online.

The type of company you are determines the strategy of how you sell to your customer. Being a luxury brand, it is important to differentiate and create a mystery behind the product. It is key to understand the type of product that can sell online vs. in store, controlling your points of distribution. When selling luxury, your customer wants to feel good about themselves and what they are purchasing by having a personal experience. Whether selling in store or online, it is paramount that you provide cohesion in that experience.

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www.normanambrose.com

Pre-NYFW ..Inside the head of Michael Kors

In keeping with my pre NYFW series, today is all about one of the torch bearers of American Fashion.

 

Today’s subject found his way to me via a series of serendipitous events which has reminded me of the power of the written word as well that of the internet in our daily lives.

 

That being said, Michael Kors is a ubiquitous presence in our lives whether we open a magazine, watch TV, stroll the toniest shopping streets around the world or amble through any department store.  For those of us who have been around longer than last season, so to speak, Michael can  sort of be summed up as an amalgam of Ralph Lauren, Halston, Zoran, Beene, Norell, Blass, Ellis  and many of Seventh Avenue’s greatest and most memorable designers; in simpler terms he is a result of what made New York a fashion power house. In a way he is extremely old school, and I say that in the most complimentary way and think that so many new designers could use a healthy dose of what was as opposed to the distorted vision they have of what it should be!

 

Where let’s say, Ralph Lauren  sold us the wasp lifestyle, Michael Kors transports the consumer to a time and ideal of a 21^st century jet setter lifestyle … slick, chic, soigne and cosmopolitan. He is an all American kind of guy who is a born and bred New Yorker whose legacy will be felt for years to come.

Let’s get inside the mind of Michael Kors!

 

What is the most treasured possession in your wardrobe?

ONE OF THEM IS THE CARTIER TANK WATCH I BOUGHT MYSELF WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL. I SPENT ALL THE MONEY I HAD SAVED UP DOING CARICATURES AT SWEET SIXTEENS AND BAT MITZVAHS. BUT IT WAS WORTH IT.  IT CHANGED EVERYTHING I WORE, HOW I FELT ABOUT MYSELF AND HOW OTHER PEOPLE SAW

 What is your most sterling trait and what trait do you treasure most in your friendships?

LOYALTY. LEO’S ARE VERY LOYAL - MANY OF MY FAVORITE PEOPLE ARE LEO’S.

What is your bliss?

ICED TEA AND A BEACH

What is your guilty secret?

TABLOID TV

Where is your ideal home?

 ON A PRIVATE ISLAND FILLED WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY

If you could not be a designer/retailer/etc.: what would you be

A BROADWAY PRODUCER

What is on your bedside table right now?

DIANA VREELAND MEMOS: THE VOGUE YEARS

What do you wear to bed?

BLACK MICHAEL KORS BRIEFS

What if any, book are you reading now or last read?

A STORY LATELY TOLD BY ANJELICA HUSTON

What’s your advice to the "newcomer?"

STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF AND YOUR VISION.

 Who or what is your inspiration/style icon?

MY PERSONAL STYLE ICON IS STEVE MCQUEEN. MY DESIGN STYLE ICON IS A MIX OF EVERYONE FROM JACKIE O. TO LAUREN HUTTON TO MY MOTHER.

What is the best advice you ever received?

STAY TRUE TO WHO YOU ARE - PEOPLE WON’T TRUST YOU IF YOU AREN’T AUTHENTIC.

In 3 words or less, describe the current state of fashion.

 DEMOCRATIC AND FAST  

If you won a $200,000,000 power ball (lottery), what is the first thing you would buy or do?

I’D DONATE IT TO WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME OR GOD’S LOVE WE DELIVER  

 If you could invite up to 4 people for dinner, who would they be…dead or alive?

  JACKIE ONASSIS, ANDY WARHOL, LUCILLE BALL AND MADONNA - ALL LEO’S!

What is your favorite movie /or movie star?

 I COULD WATCH FUNNY FACE WITH AUDREY HEPBURN A MILLION TIMES.

 Whose opinion do you value most and why?

  MY CUSTOMERS, BECAUSE THEIRS IS THE ONE THAT MATTERS MOST.

 What store or which designer do you most like to shop in or wear?

  I MOSTLY SHOP WHEN I TRAVEL; I LOVE THINGS THAT HAVE A STORY.  

What’s your take on magazines, books versus the internet?

PRINT ALL THE WAY.

  Do you have a dream collaborator?

  I WOULD’VE LOVED TO WORK WITH HALSTON.

 What is your crowning achievement thus far in your career?

I’VE BEEN VERY FORTUNATE. EVERY AWARD IS UNIQUE IN ITS OWN WAY, FROM BEING AN INFLUENCER ON THE TIME 100 LIST TO RECEIVING THE GOLDEN HEART AWARD FROM GOD’S LOVE WE DELIVER. THEY ALL MEAN SOMETHING TO ME.

What’s your music library like?

IT’S GOT A HUGE RANGE. EVERYONE FROM COLDPLAY TO CHER TO FRANK SINATRA.

What and where is your favorite meal?

A CHEESEBURGER FROM JG MELON

A Month of Fashion

After taking a short hiatus and trying to clear my head from a long series of fashion weeks, I thought it only fitting to “muse” on the topic or maybe offer some observations and maybe it is to proffer a litany of suggestions for the next grueling cycle. So read up and let me know what you think….

Aside from the ungodly duration of what was once referred to as  collection, there is now an extra added element of torture.  Collections used to focus on the top tier of designers who showed in the so called 4 major fashion capitals but alas that has changed dramatically. In today’s world of fashion we have supposedly become more democratic and less snobbish which translates to anyone who can pay the tariff gains entree into a once rarefied world.

 

Shows varied from city to city in terms of production, stature and size and yes they were always regarded as a rite of passage as having “arrived.” Well, that is all changed as we now have such an extreme homogenization  that a “buyer,”  if there are any left, a press person, or any attendee of the cycle might have trouble knowing exactly where they are! Models are robots, the staging is one at a time for the most part and all the clothes seem to just blend together.

 

Complicating matters even further is that the once rarefied air of collections is breathed by every classification of designers, whether they are at the designer or couture level or at the contemporary level. No matter what strata of so called design that they hail from, the clothes look the same with very rare exception. We have designers who are of the “me too” variety and then we have designers who will do anything to project themselves as “modern” or relevant and lastly we have intellectual designers who need to pass out press releases or as I call then instruction booklets beforehand as to explain or as I see it to justify the collections that they present.

 

 

Gone are the days when clothes spoke for themselves. Today we seem to have “critics” who spend more than half their verbiage speaking to the venue and the haughty inspirations of the so called intelligentsia of designers and a lot less time speaking to what they have seen. Once again in most cases, read one review you have read them all. Apparently now that big business has crept its way into hallowed halls of “high fashion” one can’t help but get the feeling that reviews are bought and paid for by advertising dollars. If that is not enough, then consider than if Conde Nast, which now controls a good part of what used to be referred to as  genuine fashion media, is not your ally, well, then you are on the outskirts of the new inner circle.

Where we once had characters such as Hebe Dorsey, Bernadine Morris, Mr. Fairchild, Mr. Coady and a host of  other reality based critics or reviewers, we now get  Suzy Latkes, Shooting Blanks, Feeble Phelps, Cate Horny, Nuclear Winter and car loads of 20 and 30 somethings  who give equally non informative reviews of what is paraded in front of them. Gone are the reviews which actually opined about the collection. Gone are words like ugly, distasteful, monstrosities, jokes, disasters and many such adjectives and nouns that pejoratively spoke about deserving collections. Today we have general bland accountings and only raves are reserved for the so called pets.  Oddly, those raves never really speak of clothes but speak around the clothes providing useless information that is supposedly the justification for usually ugly and ungodly creations that should have been panned rather than lauded.

 

The system is broken. We have the SEC which supposedly controls big business which SUPPOSEDLY prevents monopolies and yet we have a monopoly or series of monopolies at work here in the fashion business. Whether in media, or ownership of design houses or in retail, we are ruled and subject to the whims of the very few. We have lost what made this business exciting and vibrant. We are devolving instead of evolving and most sadly is what we have lost so much creativity due the search for acceptance.

As Grace Coddington said “I liked it better when fashion came first!”

NYC fashion ... Ralph Lauren ..resort 2013

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