American-style understated luxury, the "elegant daily life" for professional women
Michael Kors was born in 1959. In 1981, he founded the same brand in New York, focusing on American light luxury, simple business attire, and elegant practicality. The design combined European refinement with American casualness, with prices falling between fast fashion and top luxury.
In the early days, Michael Kors was a high-end designer brand. In the 1990s, it fell into financial crisis. In 2004, it launched the casual line Michael Kors (MK), positioning it as a second-tier light luxury brand, with a focus on handbags, shoes, and ready-to-wear clothing. The design was simple and elegant, with a low logo and good texture, and it quickly became popular.
Curiosity: MK rose to prominence with a "budget luxury" positioning: handbags $200–400, T-shirts $50–90, dresses $100–200. The prices were affordable but the design was high-end, becoming the workplace standard for middle-class American women. Around 2010, it became globally popular with TV shows like "Sex and the City", and MK handbags became the "first bag for light luxury", with over 1,000 stores worldwide and annual revenue exceeding 4 billion US dollars. In recent years, affected by the cooling of light luxury, the brand adjusted its design, reducing large logos, and returning to simple, high-end, and versatile daily wear, still being the second-tier light luxury clothing brand loved by working women.