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"   Last night&amp;#039;s discussion; Photo: Joyce Culver for 92Y  Last night, Fern Mallis&amp;#039;s discussion series at 92nd Street Y wrapped up its first season with a symposium featuring Michael Kors. Entering the Upper East Side establishment, attendees were expecting a sort of fashion comedy hour\u2014as Kors is known to entertain\u2014and though the bar was set high, the designer delivered. &amp;quot;The last thing I can do is work off a script,&amp;quot; Kors told ELLE following the discussion. &amp;quot;I told Fern that I didn&amp;#039;t want to know too much about what she was going to ask me in advance\u2014just let it rip.&amp;quot; Born Karl Anderson, Jr., Kors had changed his name by the age of twelve. &amp;quot;As we all know, in fashion there&amp;#039;s only one Karl\u2014I had a premonition,&amp;quot; he said. And by that age, his interest in fashion and entrepreneurialism had already started to sprout. AN 11-year-old Kors set up the &amp;quot;Iron Butterfly Boutique&amp;quot; in his basement, selling an array of homemade candles and whip-stitched leather pouches. &amp;quot;They sold out within a week,&amp;quot; he noted. Summer camp was also an opportune environment for Kors&amp;#039;s burgeoning ideas of luxury\u2014he established a laundry service where he&amp;#039;d hand-wash and press fellow campers&amp;#039; garments. &amp;quot;We didn&amp;#039;t have an iron,&amp;quot; he explained, &amp;quot;so we&amp;#039;d drip-dry them and lay them between two pieces of wooden shelving.&amp;quot; Fast-forward a few years and Kors was enrolled at FIT, an experience that was short-lived, as the designer dropped-out before graduating. &amp;quot;I was going out a lot,&amp;quot; he said of the time. &amp;quot;I frankly thought that Bianca Jagger&amp;#039;s birthday party [at Studio 54] was a great lesson.&amp;quot; Kors found employment on the sales floor at a now-shuttered department store on 57th Street\u2014a job that evolved into him designing the store&amp;#039;s entire in-house label. It was there that he met then-editor Vera Wang. &amp;quot;I was ringing her up and she was asking about the clothes,&amp;quot; he recalled. &amp;quot;And then she said, `Do you want to go to the Met [ball]?&amp;#039;&amp;quot; He dressed Wang in his designs for the gala, that year honoring Yves Saint Laurent. &amp;quot;I almost levitated,&amp;quot; Kors said of his YSL encounter. When he left to start his own label, the designer would sew production samples on rented sewing machines in his Chelsea flat. &amp;quot;I only had two sizes\u2014P and S,&amp;quot; Kors said. Bergdorf Goodman hosted his first trunk show at age 21, but it would be three years before Kors staged a fashion show. In 1993, Kors encountered an infamous kink in the middle of his fashion show, held in an raw downtown space. &amp;quot;I heard an explosion from backstage that sounded like gunfire,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;Naomi Campbell came off of the runway and said that the ceiling had fallen down and that it had hit some people,&amp;quot; including well-regarded journalist, Suzy Menkes. &amp;quot;It was time for New York to get professional show spaces... Voila!&amp;quot; he said, gesturing at Mallis, who was responsible for establishing the first organized fashion week in New York. By 2000, following a few minor roadblocks (including bankruptcy in 1993), Kors had begun to hit an indefinite stride, presenting his `Palm Bitch&amp;#039; collection for Spring and designing the `Tahiti&amp;#039; sandal that was regarded as the shoe of the season. &amp;quot;I called it my Park Avenue Jesus sandal,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;It was a hippie sandal that you could wear at La Grenouille.&amp;quot; More recently, Kors has struck a footwear goldmine with his &amp;quot;consummate Bat Mitzvah shoe\u2014it&amp;#039;s called the Berkley T-Strap. Now I have 12-year-old customers.&amp;quot; The designer, who&amp;#039;s judged Project Runway for the last ten years, was originally hesitant to enroll in the reality TV formula, he revealed. &amp;quot;I kept thinking Survivor\u2014like people were going to be eating the fabric or something.&amp;quot; Looking back now, Kors is impressed: &amp;quot;It was the first time that people saw how clothes come about and the interesting people that are involved in the process.&amp;quot; Most recently, Kors rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, signaling his company&amp;#039;s initial public offering, which was valued at 3.5 billion dollars\u2014the largest in fashion history. &amp;quot;It was better than my Bar Mitzvah,&amp;quot; he quipped. Noting his success has been thirty years in the making, to young designers he advised: &amp;quot;Keep your eye on the ball\u2014do what you do, and do it well.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/news/a21744/michael-kors-talks-bar-mitzvahs-premonitions-ipos-43761/>