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Michael Kors Collection shares the first images from the the Spring 2021 campaign, scheduled for release next month. Models Hiandra Martinez and Rebecca Leigh Longendyke return to the scene of the Spring 2021 show in images by Inez and Vinoodh.

AOC thought of Donna Karan’s quiet glamour and sensuality more than once , viewing the Michael Kors Spring 2021 collection. The event was filmed at the New York Restoration Project Bronx Community Garden in the Highbridge neighborhood of the Bronx.

A separate film was shot by Haley Elizabeth at the community garden location eight blocks from where Kors’ grandfather grew up. 2020 American Idol winner Samantha Diaz performed personal renditions of “Up On The Roof” and “You’ve Got A Friend.”

Diaz, the Harlem singer and songwriter known as Just Sam, was discovered by Kors and husband Lance LePere during lockdown. With no travel or live music entertainment available, the couple turned to American Idol and were astounded to discover the talented Diaz.

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Speaking about the Spring 2021 collection, Michael Kors shared in his notes: “I wanted to take the easiness that has been so comforting to us during a really tough time and combine it with glamour, with luxury, with something that will last for years to come.”

This sense of creating something meaningful that has provenance and is designed to last lies at the heart of the Kors film and how the team ended up in the Bronx in the first place. Michael Kors has long been at the forefront of the New York fashion industry’s philanthropy efforts. There may be no cause that is dearer to his heart than community gardening and dealing with food deserts in New York’s poorer neighborhoods.

There are scenes in the film from a 2018 event that AOC covered with Michael Kors and good friend Bette Midler. In 2019 Midler’s New York Restoration Projects had created 52 community gardens across New York . Midler’s projects will sustain themselves with long-term funding by some of New York’s biggest philanthropists long after she leaves her earthly existence.

Architectural Digest covered the process by which Midler and her crew created Fannie’s Garden at Paradise on Earth, “a 13,000-square-foot public living room.” Of the 36 raised planting beds, 12 were designed with wheelchair-dependent gardeners in mind. There’s even a chicken coop and potable water.

It’s this love for nature, community and New York that inspired Michael Kors’ spring 2021 collection. Kors articulates beautifully these sentiments in Haley Elizabeth’s film.