On Monday night, Michael Kors will take the stage at the American Museum of Natural History to receive a much-deserved prize. The CFDA is presenting the designer with its Positive Change Award in recognition of his decades of work advocating for people in need and supporting philanthropic organizations. Among them are God’s Love We Deliver, which cooks and home-delivers nutritious, medically tailored meals for New Yorkers too sick to shop or cook for themselves, and the United Nations World Food Program, with which he launched the Watch Hunger Stop campaign in 2013.
In the last fiscal year, God’s Love supported more than 16,000 clients and their kids and caregivers with 4.3 million meals, an organizational record. Cindy McCain, the World Food Program executive director, has stated that Kors and his company have, “provided millions of nutritious school meals for children over the past ten years.” Those kinds of numbers are undeniable, but even more persuasive are Kors’s own words on the subject of giving back. He spoke with Vogue about his history of doing good.
Do you remember an early experience that triggered this lifetime of giving back?
I grew up as an only child, and I think my mom wanted me to realize that the world was not filled with only children. She always stressed—never using the word empathy, because I was too small—that you have to be aware that not everyone is in your situation, and to think about other people. I remember being really little on Halloween and, taking my UNICEF box door to door, when I trick or treated, and I remember my mom saying, ‘whatever you collect, I’ll match it.’ One year, we sat down and we were thinking about how could I raise even more money with my UNICEF box? And we came up with the kooky idea that I could dress up as a UNICEF box. So my mom painted a cardboard box, and the minute I showed up, ringing doorbells, dressed as a UNICEF box, I collected more money than I had ever collected before. Little things like that taught me early on as a young child, about just getting outside of yourself, of thinking about someone else.
And then, fast forward to the 1980s, and I had a small business. I was slowly growing it, but I certainly did not have a big platform, nor, nor did I have access to lots of funds. But when the AIDS crisis really came crashing in, and it was literally every corner I turned, friends, coworkers, it was just everywhere, people were dying and people were sick. And I think early on, there was truly the sense of helplessness and not knowing, not knowing what was going to happen, and also feeling, what could you do to help? I think maybe because I’m a very pragmatic designer, I kept thinking, you know, I want results. Show me results. What can we do where I see results? And I heard about God’s Love. Sometimes people think that it has to be such a complicated answer to a difficult question, but it was actually a very easy answer that, okay, there are people who, number one, feel shunned, have no contact with the outside world. They’re ill and they need human contact, but they also need nutritious food. The first thing I ever did was actually deliver meals, and you saw immediately how this affected people. So in a strange way, it was the perfect thing for me, because there was this immediate change in what you did for a person at that minute, at that moment.
You were involved in the very first Seventh of Sale, in 1990, right? It benefited the New York City AIDS Fund.
Yes, when the first Seventh on Sale came a few years later, my business had started to grow. I remember we set up our boutique and we didn’t really register the breadth and the enormity of what we were about to embark on. I thought, Oh, I’m going to have this perfectly curated little shop, and then we sold everything in about 20 minutes. And we literally rushed back to my office, which was only a few blocks away, and we grabbed everything we could grab to sell. And then the next day I saw the lines wrapping around the corner, and I thought to myself, this is remarkable that as my career evolves, my giving can evolve and grow and change and again affect people s lives. Really, what it boils down to for me is whatever I feel is going to affect human beings’ lives—that’s what provokes me to give back.
Is there a single thing that you feel like has made the most impact on people’s lives?
In the ’90s, all of a sudden the borders in fashion disappeared. I was in Paris designing Céline, and Michael Kors was becoming global. And I kept thinking, if we’re affecting people’s lives here in New York City, what do we do to affect people’s lives outside of New York, all around the world. That’s how I discovered the UN’s World Food Program. I did my due diligence and I was astounded by the fact that this is an organization, they are on the ground, Regardless of what catastrophes, which unfortunately, are always unfolding in the world, they’re there. And the most exciting thing about working with them has been the fact that, you know, we’ve raised so much money, not only just from our own donations, but to take my social platforms and our customers and our fans and engage them to participate.
The World Food Program’s school meals program has been truly a game changer, because in many instances, it really has been about young girls. In a lot of countries where the money is going for these food programs, the families will keep these girls home. They will not send them to school, they will make them stay at home and work in the house. The simple truth is, the food program is letting the families change their thinking about their girls getting an education because of the free meal. If we can get a girl to go to school because of the meal, well, that’s a double win, right?
I’m sure you have young people who come to you asking how to get involved. What are your rules for being a maker of positive change?
A lot of people feel that you have to be wealthy to be able to be a philanthropist, and that is certainly not the case. I’ll go back to God’s Love. To deliver a meal, to pack a meal in the kitchen, to chop a vegetable... The joy you get about being part of this, this organization, and being around other people who feel the same way as you do, is remarkable. So, find your empathy, find what brings you joy and what you are passionate about, and remember that this is not about wealth or position. But then when we do talk about money—you know, in the West, we live these very, very fast lives. We should remember, a $5 cup of coffee, which we think nothing of, is a month’s worth of school meals.
The world will always need the help of generous people like you. What are your future goals in terms of making positive change?
I’ve gotten involved with organizations that never say never. When the need grows, they grow with it. So, of course, you have to stay on your toes and be able to meet the challenges that are thrown your way. I think it’s being aware of what’s going on in the world and where there’s a need, and making sure you understand where you find your joy, because you want to be passionate about what you’re getting involved with, and know that you’re affecting change in people’s lives. That’s the greatest gift.
