Michael Kors helped redesign his mother's wedding dress when he was just five years old.
Michael Kors
One of the 60-year-old designer's earliest memories is of going "silent" when he saw Joan Hamburger's gown for the first time and she had certain alterations made at his urging.
He recalled: "My grandmother was with us at the bridal salon, and my mother had ordered her dress, and was having the first fitting. It was floor-length, heavy cream shantung, very Balenciaga, and covered in bows. When my mother tried it on, I just went silent. My mother asked, 'What's wrong?' and I said, 'Those bows are so terrible!' "
When he was six, Michael was desperate to own a black faux-fur coat similar to one he'd seen American footballer Joe Namath wear.
He said: "He was just the epitome of the cool guy. Very handsome, very good-looking and a great athlete who loved fashion."
The designer's grandmother bought him the coat for Christmas.
He told HarpersBazaar.com: "I was probably the only child who wasn't interested in toys at all."
Michael credits his success to being engaged in conversations about fashion by the women in his family from a young age.
He said: "They were all very specific in their point of view, they were all very opinionated.
"To this day, the question I hate the most is when people say, "Who's your muse?" And I say, 'Muse? If I'm only designing for one woman, then we're in trouble.'
And the designer's biggest aim when creating new garments is to make all women feel their best, regardless of their body shape.
He said: "My aim is to make women feel their best selves. She could be 85, she could be 16; she could be a size 22 or a size four."
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