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#BoFLive | Michael Kors In Conversation with Imran Amed

For the latest instalment of our global video interview series, #BoFLive, editor-in-chief Imran Amed sits down with designer Michael Kors in Shanghai for a conversation to be broadcast on businessoffashion.com at 2pm BST on 8 May 2014.

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SHANGHAI, China — Over the years, The Business of Fashion’s #BoFLive global interview series has featured conversations between editor-in-chief Imran Amed and leading industry figures like Natalie Massenet, Jefferson Hack and Nick Knight. Most recently, we spoke to designer Tory Burch in London and Carol Lim and Humberto Leon of Opening Ceremony in New York. Now, #BoFLive takes readers to Shanghai for a conversation with renowned fashion designer Michael Kors.

On 8 May 2014, in front of a live audience at the Jinart Art Gallery in Shanghai, the fashion designer will speak to BoF’s Imran Amed about his personal and professional journey, from humble beginnings as a boy growing up in Long Island to launching the largest fashion IPO in history for his own company Michael Kors, one of the world’s fastest-growing fashion brands which now has over $2 billion of annual revenues and a market capitalisation of more than $18 billion.

From a young age, Kors harboured a love of fashion and style. In 1977, he enrolled in New York's Fashion Institute of Technology but dropped out soon after to began working at the Manhattan boutique Lothar's, where he first met some of the men and women who would go on to inspire the jet-set lifestyle that underpins his brand.

Soon, Kors began designing his own line for Lothar’s, which was eventually spotted and picked up by Dawn Mello of Bergdorf Goodman. Shortly thereafter, Kors debuted his own label at New York Fashion Week. But the recession of the early 1990s forced the designer to seek bankruptcy protection.

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But the designer didn't give up. In 1997, he began designing for French sportswear brand Céline, eventually becoming the brand's first creative director. In 2003, Kors exited Céline to refocus full-time on his own brand, bolstered by an investment from Silas Chou and Lawrence Stroll (who bought out shares formerly held by LVMH, Onward Kashiyama and Kors' long-time business partner, John Orchulli). Chou and Stroll had previously helped make Tommy Hilfiger a household name in the 1990s and brought an experienced management team to the Michael Kors brand.

In 2004, Kors appeared as a regular judge on the newly-debuted and massively popular reality television series Project Runway, making Michael Kors a household name across America thanks to his punchy humour and witty commentary. This, plus the brand's savvy formula, combining a streamlined American "jet set" aesthetic with "affordably luxury" price points, helped rocket the Michael Kors company to success.

The Michael Kors IPO in late-2011 raised more than $900 million, valuing the company at more than $3 billion, making it the largest fashion IPO in history.

As with previous interviews, the conversation with Michael Kors will be broadcast on BoF. We invite our readers to submit questions for Michael Kors on Twitter using the hashtag #BoFLive.

To learn more about the designer, visit Michael Kors’ BoF 500 page.

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