Michael Kors Turns 45 With a Broadway-Born Ad Campaign Starring Six Stage Performers
Michael Kors is marking 45 years in business with a fall 2026 advertising campaign built around six performers: Misty Copeland, Sutton Foster, Judith Light, Audra McDonald, Lea Michele and Kara Young.
The campaign was photographed on set in New York City by the duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, with styling by Carlos Nazario and movement direction by Stephen Galloway. It features designs from the brand's fall 2026 collection, which was shown at the Opera House at Lincoln Center. The images are graphic black-and-white portraits grouped under the season theme "New York Chic," focused on dramatic simplicity and what the brand calls making a chic entrance.
For Kors, the stage connection runs deep. He has said he saw his first Broadway show — starring Ethel Merman — at age five, and that formative experience has shaped how he thinks about clothes and performance ever since. He also took Copeland, the American Ballet Theatre principal dancer, to the Met Gala this year.
The six women in the campaign span dance, theatre and television. Copeland made her name as the first Black female principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre. Foster and McDonald are multiple Tony Award winners. Light is a two-time Emmy winner whose stage credits span decades. Michele is known to television audiences from the musical-drama series Glee and returned to Broadway in recent seasons. Young won a Tony in 2024 for her performance in Purlie Victorious.
Photographing performers rather than models is a choice that sits naturally with a designer who has spent four and a half decades dressing people whose job is to be looked at. The black-and-white portrait format strips the images back to face, posture and fabric — no scenery competing for attention, no colour story to decode.
Capri Holdings, the American group that owns Michael Kors alongside Versace and Jimmy Choo, has not released separate financial figures tied to the anniversary campaign. The brand operates within a global accessories-and-ready-to-wear business that competes across the accessible-luxury segment — the price band below the houses controlled by LVMH and Kering but above fast-fashion retailers such as Inditex's Zara and Shein.
Forty-five years is a long run for an American fashion house founded by a single designer. Kors launched his label in 1981, went public in 2011, and saw the company grow into the Capri Holdings group through acquisitions of Versace in 2018 and Jimmy Choo in 2017. The anniversary campaign is the latest signal that the brand intends to keep its founder's name and taste at the centre of its identity.
WWD reported the campaign details on 10 August 2026.
