Kenneth Cole may be celebrating his 30th year in the business, but he’s already looking forward to the next 10 years.
“I am looking forward to celebrating my 40th,” he said at the opening of the Kenneth Cole flagship store in CentralWorld, Bangkok.
His optimistic attitude was evident when he talked about the book he released to mark his 30th anniversary, “This is a Kenneth Cole Production.”
“In my mind, it’s a little bit awkward,” he said, “because the best part of the story is what’s ahead.”
Going “ahead” seems typical of Cole who started as a shoe designer then went on to transform his house into a total fashion house.
But Cole said he did not grow up wanting to be a shoemaker, despite growing up with a dad who had a shoe factory and being in the shoe business all his life.
“I was initially repelled by the idea and had no interest whatsoever in doing women’s shoes,” said Cole. “Until one summer I worked at a shoe factory and I fell in love with the craft of shoemaking, and it’s the function of classic design married to engineering and architecture.”
He said he became captivated by the convergence of art and form and function and utility.
From shoes, he eventually moved on to handbags, accessories and clothing with three different “tiers” to his brand, Kenneth Cole, Kenneth Cole Reaction and Unlisted.
So what lies ahead for fashion?
“We’ve seen the world come together, and I don’t think that there is Western and Eastern fashion anymore,” Cole said.
He explained that fashion has been both democratized and globalized, so what one sees in the shops in New York would probably be what one would also see in a Southeast Asian city.
“I think today people want to wear clothes that don’t define the brand they are wearing, but to define their own brand,” he said of the distinct urban way of dressing which is clean, refined and comfortable, which are characteristics of the Kenneth Cole look.
He said his hope is that, in these days of social media and discerning fashionistas, he would be welcomed into “individual brands.”
Causes
As far back as the ’80s, Kenneth Cole was already connected to social causes, the most well-known being AIDS research. “I did it then because no one else did,” he said. “Even the president of the United States didn’t mention AIDS until 1987 when over 40,000 people had already died, so I got involved in it because stigma, and arguably even today, is killing more people than AIDS is.”
He went on to become the chairperson of American Foundation for AIDS Research
(amFAR). “It’s been a privilege to be part of it,” said Cole.
In the Philippines, Kenneth Cole is at Greenbelt 5, Bonifacio High Street, Alabang Town Center, Power Plant Mall, Trinoma, Eastwood Mall, Shangri-La Plaza and Mall of Asia.
