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If you had any doubt that style, and indeed gayness, is genetic, listen to Michael Kors: His first commission was designing his mom Joan's wedding dress for her second marriage when, as he reveals in an interview, he was five years old. It was definitely in the blood: Even though the "Swedish Lutherian" side of his family "couldn't have given a fig about fashion," the Jewish side "loooved it. My grandfather's idea of a really great afternoon out was being fitted for a suit."

But all his deeply-bred fashion acumen didn't enable Kors—who just enjoyed an A-listy store opening in London—to understand what a career-boost Project Runway would be: He was going to turn down the offer to appear on the show, and only agreed once Harvey Weinstein convinced him. "Reality show? Fashion on television? It had never worked. I thought that only fashionista freaks, gays and men wanting to see Heidi Klum in a short dress would watch it."

Even without TV as a conduit to Kors' magic, he can twist his customers around his tanned little finger. A consummate salesman at his trunk shows, he recently sold $250,000 worth of clothes in one night, and has been instrumental in bringing back what so many hoped would remain but an eighties memory: the big shoulder.

"The fortysomethings are a little nervous until I explain that these pads are not like the old monsters," he says, whereas "the young ones are, like, what are they?" At which point Kors leads the doubters to a three-way mirror. "Then I ask them whether the shoulder pads make their asses look thinner. That usually does it."

Okay, so being a skilled designer and appearing on TV is great for selling clothes, but the real secret that all store clerks should take note of? Giving women the fashion version of a neg!

Michael Kors: an upbeat, uptown guy in a downturn [Times UK]