Rachel Zegler and Dara Are Gagging For Michael Kors FW24

TUESDAY FEB. 13, 2024 6:18 PM NEW YORK.

Rachel Zegler is a real New Yorker, and she won’t come out of her self-imposed NYFW quarantine for just anyone. But a front-row seat to the Michael Kors FW24 show was enough to lure the West Side Story star to Chelsea yesterday afternoon. Mr. Kors, of course, brought Zegler as his date to the 2021 CFDA Awards, where they bonded over their shared admiration for one another and Kors’ love of musical theater. At yesterday’s presentation, a procession of timeless classics, their love affair continued. “These slip dresses with fur, it was just so beautiful,” Zegler told Dara, our fashion director, after the show. “To me, that’s the energy we should be bringing into 2024.”

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DARA: Wait, I love that we’re giving video. I’m literally at a diner.

RACHEL ZEGLER: I love this. I just got back home. I’m going to go see Josh [Andres Rivera] on set in a second.

DARA: Fresh off the runway. Your look was giving “yes, and?” and I’m obsessed. How are you feeling about “yes, and?”

ZEGLER: I love it so much. I’m here for it because it’s giving me the time when I was desperate for human connection during COVID and Chromatica came out.

DARA: I need to tell you my COVID Chromatica story actually, because when “Rain on Me” dropped and the music video came out, there’s that last third of the video when they’re dancing together and there’s this shot that switches between the two of them. I thought their faces were morphing together because I hadn’t seen anyone in months. So I was losing it. I burst into tears.

ZEGLER: So you get what I mean then?

DARA: You’re the only other person.

ZEGLER: It’s a weird thing I’m nostalgic for, even though I don’t want to go back there. I had the whole house to myself and I basically had a speaker in every room. I was truly going truly sicko mode.

DARA: How’s your fashion week been?

ZEGLER: This was my first show and I think it might be my only. New York Fashion Week overwhelms me unlike anything else.

DARA: Yes.

ZEGLER: Michael [Kors] is one of the only people I’d come out of hiding for. It’s insane on those streets, and I’m a New Yorker.

DARA: I fully ate shit outside.

ZEGLER: Did you fall?!

DARA: Yes, and today I’m wearing the most comfortable shoe I’ve worn this whole week. You know me, I’m in a six-inch Manolo Blahnik normally. Today, because it’s slippery outside, I was like, “I’m going to do a little comfortable ankle boot.”.

ZEGLER: And you still?

DARA: It was Carrie Bradshaw Dior store like, boom, down.

ZEGLER: No.

DARA: It was bad. 

ZEGLER: That is bad. But you would’ve never known when I saw you. The face was fresh. The outfit was good.

DARA: We hid it well.

ZEGLER: Yeah.

DARA: Do you have any favorite Kors memories?

ZEGLER: So, Michael took me to the CFDAs as his date in 2021.

DARA: Major.

ZEGLER: I got in the car and he was in the backseat, which is crazy to me. We were talking about how I wanted to be a fashion designer when I was a kid because I watched him and Nina Garcia on Project Runway. I watched Christian Siriano win Project Runway when it was airing and I was like, “I want to do that so bad.” Michael told me about how he would watch movies like West Side Story and wanted to do musical theater, so we were joking that we had Freaky Friday’d. He ended up having the life I was dreaming about and I ended up having the life that he dreamed about. But since we get to be friends, it’s water under the bridge. I worshiped him when I was a kid. One of the bags I carried to school was my mom’s old totes from Michael Kors.

DARA: Oh my god!

ZEGLER: So getting to share anything with him and getting to see him today, it was really amazing. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him. And he’s always been such a champion for the musical theater community.

DARA: That’s so sweet. The show is really cute.

ZEGLER: Thoroughly, it’s probably one of my favorites of his that I’ve seen. These slip dresses with fur, it was just so beautiful.

DARA: Those big furry-

ZEGLER: And the big furs, yes!

DARA: I need to see you in the big furs.

ZEGLER: I turned to Nina Dobrev, who was beside me, and I was like, “I needed that today.”

DARA: You need the fur coat with just tights and a heel.

ZEGLER: To me, that’s the energy we should be bringing into 2024.

DARA: Is there any other hot gossip from the front row?

ZEGLER: I have genuine fears of looking people in the eye at these events because I’m terrified. But no, I feel like Michael kind of has this community around him that’s really beautiful and he really does want to establish relationships with the people he uses for his muses, for his collections, but also just the people he brings to his shows and the people he wants to hang out with. I met Meghann Fahy, who I’ve been watching on Broadway. She was in Next To Normal when I was a kid and I idolized her and then all of a sudden she was in White Lotus and everybody knew who she was. That was very cool for me.

DARA: Fierce fan girl moment. Love.

ZEGLER: Yeah, I was pretty thrilled.

DARA: I’m so happy I got to see you today.

ZEGLER: Oh, my god. Me too. You’re my fucking sister.

DARA: That’s my sister.

ZEGLER: That’s my fucking sister.

DARA: Hunter [Schafer] is going to be so jealous.

ZEGLER: Josh is going to be so jealous.