Brandi Cyrus, Taylor Hill, and Other Stars Celebrate Michael Kors at Nashville Bash

Celebrities, friends, and collaborators came together last night to celebrate designer Michael Kors, who has just debuted his latest collection for Nordstrom.

Stars including Brandi Cyrus, Karen Elson, Taylor Hill, Kristin Cavallari, and Mickey Guyton joined the designer for an intimate dinner at Nashville hotspot Adele’s.

Cyrus—sister of superstars Miley and Noah—wore a sleek black midi dress by Kors, featuring a high leg slit and a built-in belt with a large silver buckle. She finished the look with black strappy heels and a matching clutch. Hill, meanwhile, wore a contrasting all-white look: an oversize, tailored Michael Kors suit paired with a lacy bralette.

Why choose Nashville to celebrate this collaboration?

Well, number one, the Nordstrom here is an incredible store, and the city is exploding with energy. What has always intrigued me about here is that it’s a city where people who have a dream come to fulfill it.

How does your new fall collection cater to what you think the Nordstrom audience is looking for right now?

I think women want to be able to move in their clothes and travel. There’s a desire for glamour, but at the same time—after COVID-19—comfort. It’s just the best of both worlds, and I think the customers understand that very much. [Our customer is] plugged in, she follows the collections, she knows what’s happening, she knows what’s right for her.

And for me it’s always exciting, even after all these years, to go out and meet the customer. How do people live? Where are they going out to eat? What’s going on in the city? For me, it’s always something I store in the back of my head. It’s more than market research. It’s just, you’re not thinking about an imaginary customer. You’re thinking about the reality of how women get dressed.

Has your feeling about how people wear your clothes changed over time?

I think that they used to think of Michael Kors collection as something that was more “special occasion,” and now I see more and more women are like, “Maybe I’ll wear the whole look to dinner, or to work, or to an event.” People are more comfortable grabbing the jacket and throwing it on with jeans; they’re not afraid of mixing.

I think once there was this separation of like, “Oh that’s my casual everyday and this is my special wardrobe.” And now I think people have realized, you know, use what you love, don’t put it on the shelf.

This collection is very chi,c and you’ve always been a minimalist. How do you feel about the quiet luxury trend going around?

The funny thing is, I’ve always thought that everything you own should be something that you can imagine wearing in 10 years. The quality should be there when you put it on, it should make you feel great, and simplicity allows for you to change things.

So I’m going to always be a fan for quality, always be a fan for longevity. And at the end of the day also, I think it’s about looking at the woman—you want to notice her. Because if you wear something that’s so insanely noticeable … I call it the Instagram disaster, where you’re like, “Oh my god, it will look great on Instagram.” Then you wear it once. And if you talk about sustainability, that’s the opposite of being sustainable, wearing it once.

I know you paid tribute to the ’70s American Classic era with this collection. Are you nostalgic for that time?

When I was designing the fall collection, I kept thinking about how we interpret words differently. And now when you hear the word influencer, of course, you know, like, Oh, how many followers do they have?

But what the word influencer meant to me as a kid growing up is there were all of these women who were the originals, and they were changing the world. They were influencing the world in more than just how they dressed. But they also were influencing how everyone looked, whether, you know, whether it was Gloria Steinem or Diana Ross or Tina Turner.

Then I think there are these incredible women today, young women like Amanda Gorman, who I think prove that being stylish doesn’t diminish your power. In fact, it increases your power, which is what someone like Gloria Steinem always knew.