Michael Kors is back for New York Fashion Week, and he’s tapped some of the most sought-after supermodels for the occasion.

Big names like Bella Hadid, Irina Shayk, Naomi Campbell, Ashley Graham, and Helena Christensen were seen strutting their stuff down New York City’s famous Broadway, just outside the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. Though the area is usually packed with locals and tourists alike, the streets were unusually empty, with the outside venue being chosen due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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This presentation comes after the designer’s announcement in June 2020 that he would be taking a break from NYFW, which was scheduled to go down in September last year. While he announced at the time that he would be back for a spring 2021 presentation in the mid-October to mid-November time frame, it looks like he decided to come back sooner.

“I have for a long time thought that the fashion calendar needs to change,” Kors said in a statement last year. “It’s exciting for me to see the open dialogue within the fashion community about the calendar—from Giorgio Armani to Dries Van Noten to Gucci to YSL to major retailers around the globe—about ways in which we can slow down the process and improve the way we work. We’ve all had time to reflect and analyze things, and I think many agree that it’s time for a new approach for a new era.”

Kors’ announcement was prompted by the ongoing pandemic and COVID-19 Stay-At-Home orders, which kept shoppers out of stores and resulted in a lot of unsold merchandise. Plus, the pandemic also delayed production and deliveries of the fall 2020 collections.

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“It is imperative that we give the consumer time to absorb the fall deliveries, which will just be arriving in September, and not confuse them with an overabundance of additional ideas, new seasons, products, and images,” said Kors. “Prior to the late 1990s, the New York spring collections were shown from late October to the beginning of November, after the Paris collections.”

He continued, “That calendar was in place for many decades and worked quite smoothly, and particularly in this age with the speed of social media, showing the collection closer to when it will be delivered makes logical sense to me.”

The press release went on to state that Kors will produce two collections per year for the Michael Kors Collection, one for spring/summer and one for fall/winter for a more streamlined approach on the sales floor.

“I think it is also important to return to the idea that September and March are key months in launching the beginning of seasonal selling for the consumer,” Kors said. “This is when key editorial and media content hits, when the weather is starting to change, and when people are ready to absorb new collections and product—that they can wear and shop immediately. Keeping all of this in mind, we will also be reassessing when the fall collection is released to the press and the public—most likely sometime between mid-March and mid-April.”

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