Bold Looks Among Boulders at Michael Kors' New York Fashion Week Show

Fashion sometimes involves risk and designer Michael Kors would tell you some risks aren’t worth taking. Last year, his September show was held outside and the weather did not cooperate, so he decided his spring/summer 2025 collection at New York Fashion Week would bring nature inside instead.

Kors and his team created a unique runway in a cavernous raw space in a midtown building, with stark metal benches lining the rectangular walls and gigantic faux black rocks scattered in the center and sides, similar to the rocky beaches of the Amalfi Coast. The drama of Italian cliffs in an urban setting was part of Kors’ abstract inspiration.

Kors says he’s “glued” to pop culture and was especially fascinated by the recent Netflix series “Ripley,” based on Patricia Highsmith’s classic novel, “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” The dark story is set in coastal Italy where a man who covets a friend’s wealthy life kills him and takes over his identity, killing anyone else who threatens his new persona.

“Seeing this romantic, moody, dark story shot all in black and white, I thought it brought something very different to the romance of it,” Kors told The Associated Press backstage before the show. “There was this sort of dark side of romance that’s not sweet, not insipid, and mysterious. And then also, this is my 35th anniversary of working with Italian artisans and I really wanted to play up all of the incredible tailors and craftspeople in Italy.”

The result was a show that used stark lighting and a haunting instrumental score to set the mood for a lot of black and white and muted colors with looks that evoke Ripley’s 1950’s hybrid style of city and resortwear.

“There’s lots of texture, black raffia, white embroideries. Everything is very tactile,” Kors explained. “It’s all the colors that you would find in the Mediterranean. So all of the natural colors have very soft browns and creams. And then of course, there’s going to be blue.”