The joy of modernism: Michael Kors makes pragmatism of art
For Spring/Summer 2027, Michael Kors channelled a summer of modernist excursions into a pragmatic wardrobe of lean tailoring, artful opulence and “realistic optimism”. Anders Christian Madsen reviews the show.
“The disease that I can’t shake is my terrible FOMO. I have to see everything,” Michael Kors confessed during a preview for his spring/summer 2027 collection. He’d spent the summer travelling to exhibitions around the world – from Calder in Paris to the new LACMA in L.A. – and there’s only so much modernism a man can take before he has to do a show at MoMA. It took place in its garden where Kors imagined his cast as “the mix of people that you see at a museum.” At fashion week, where you never know if people’s clothes are bought or borrowed, we often say that the real high-fashion customers are found at the art fairs. That’s where you get a genuine glimpse into what sells. Through that lens, Kors’ collection felt both pragmatic and business-savvy.
He transformed his summer of global gallery hopping into an art-imbued collection constructed from forms and colour elements that easily read as modernist, which Kors said he sees as timeless: “Modernism that’s really well thought out and has quality, it stands the test of time.” The form language of dresses, suits and tops in the season’s already-omnipresent bold red and green was treated with artful flair, but Kors retained an unpretentious ease throughout the collection. Tailoring was lean and sharp with just a touch of architectural enhancement, and flou was infused with elements from sportswear and swimwear. In the decorative department, Kors forewent print in favour of what he called “painting with embroidery.”
It was a sense of dressing up that embodied a desire for opulence without ostentation, which feels very now, and which has been overwhelmingly conveyed during the first three days of New York Fashion Week. Kors and his designer colleagues are figuring out how to express a sense of joy that doesn’t feel frivolous or escapist. “No matter what I do, it has to stand the test of time but also be something that brings you joy, lifts your spirits, changes your eye, and makes you think differently,” he said. The wardrobe he presented was an answer to both a present-day sentimentality and the needs of a changing environment. As Kors put it, “The weather is crazy.”
Proposals such as cotton-wool-linen blends in tailoring – and many other concoctions – were created as a solution to dressing for an ever-hotter climate. “We’re really trying to concentrate on things that answer the question: When the weather changes, what are you going to wear?” Kors said. It contributed to the pragmatism of a collection that ticked all the boxes of a modern-day mentality. Except, perhaps, one. “Someone said, ‘Why would you have a bag that you can’t carry your phone in?’” Kors said, holding up a minaudière that looked like an organic sculpture. “I said, ‘Because all she needs is a black American Express card!’” he laughed. That’s a form of pragmatism, too.
No matter what I do, it has to stand the test of time but also be something that brings you joy, lifts your spirits, changes your eye, and makes you think differently.
MICHAEL KORS
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