BRAND PROFILE | Kenzo
Kenzo Takada has always been known for breaking the rules and setting trends. From going against his parents wishes and attending the prestigiuos design program at the Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo - he was the first male ever to be admitted into the school-, to being credited with launching Sayoko Yamaguchi’s career who later went on to become the first ever international Asian super model; Kenzo has always been one of a kind.
(Kenzo Takada and Sayoko Yamaguchi)
The late 60s and early 70s, the era in which Takada began his career, were known for being the birth of the counterculture. It was a cultural phenomenon that developed first in the US and UK and later spread throughout much of the Western world. As the 1960s progressed social tensions began to develop concerning issues regarding human sexuality, women’s rights, traditional modes of authority, and drug experimentation. As the era unfolded people began celebrating creativity, experimentation and modern takes of bohemian lifestyles to express their feelings of alienation from middle class society.
And this is where Kenzo's imagination was allowed to flourish. When he initially began creating garments he didn’t have the means to buy reams of new and expensive fabric, so he would resort to purchasing scraps at flea markets and blending them together to create a single piece. These wild and bold print mixes were hugely successful, and became the brands instant signature aesthetic. The Kenzo name became so reknown that by the 1970s Vogue had declared it to be the next big thing in boutique fashion. His designs of smocked tent dresses and oversized dungarees at his first boutique in Paris, called Jungle Jap, had caught the eye of some of the most important fashion critics of the time and all his efforts had begun to show results.
Looking back now it is no surprise that Kenzo became such a success, after all, he had been winning prizes for his designs since he was 21. Starting with the prestigious Soen award in 1960 - with which he recieved the opportunity to work for the Sanai department store in Tokyo as a designer of women’s clothing creating up to 40 new styles every month -, to the Fashion Editors Club of Japan prize in 1972, the Bath Museum of Costume Dress of the Year award in 1976, and ending with the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1984.
(Kenzo in Vogue Deutsch by Hans Feurer - February 1985)
Kenzo himself has defined the brand as having an “anti-couture” spirit; his vibrant and eclectic collections epitomize the concept of “West meets East” by merging fun prints with an ethnic vibe, flowers (the house’s signature print), and textures to blend Kenzo’s natural Japanese influences with Parisian culture. This can even be appreciated in his concept of the perfect customer; young and hip women who love the idea of the exotic and the far away. These were women who understood the importance of other cultures and didn’t just want to stay stuck in classic old France; Kenzo’s clothing gave them the chance to explore right from the comfort of their own homes.
(Kenzo Ad 1985)
After Kenzo announced his retirement in 1999 he left his assistants in charge of the fashion house, which they managed for several years with LVMH as the oficial owner (the group bought the label in 1993). The brand went through a few other creative directors until Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, the duo behind the US clothing brand Opening Ceremony, landed the position in July 2011.
It is thanks in great part to them that Kenzo is the power house that we know today. One of the brands biggest successes under the Opening Ceremony duo was learning how to maintain Takada’s original concept of branding the Kenzo name. For example, Leon and Lim are known for personally overseeing every aspect of their fashion shows; from the design to the Kenzo coffee cups they give out to the attendees during events. By creating a homogenous idea of what the brand represented, they created a marketing strategy that will keep customers coming for more.
(Carol Lim and Humberto Leon - GQ, December 2012)
Another important aspect worth mentioning is that both Leon and Lim come from a very successful 10 year stint at Opening Ceremony. They know what the customer wants and how to give it to them and a perfect example of this was the craze that surrounded the Kenzo Tiger Sweatshirt in 2012. The brand created 2000 pieces which sold out in just two days at the New York store and within three hours (thanks to Facebook and word-of-mouth) at the Paris store. The garment had been designed to introduce the new iconography for the label, the tiger, and to create a piece that would appeal to their new target market of young and hip kids that had been lost during the transition from one creative director to other. This was a risky situation because the brand had never, in its 40 years of existence, designed any type of sweatshirt.
(Chiara Ferragni - The Blonde Salad)
(Andy Torres - The Style Scrapbook)
(Miroslava Duma - Former Harper's Bazaar Rusia Editor)
With the concept of a newer and younger target market came the issue of having to overhaul what Kenzo's past creative directors had set up in regards to staying true to the brand; the new management had to learn how to adapt to the modern times to keep the company profitable and current and still be able to attract that new kind of customer. This was why brining on a duo of designers that had years of experience in designing for the young people of today was the first and smartest step to solving the issue. On the same subject Humberto Leon was quoted as saying “Kenzo, as a brand, has such a rich and fascinating history, it can be hard to determine what exactly we have changed [...] with our new collections, we hope that we have injected the brand with a youthful spirit and a sense of fun and cheekiness. But we also want to respect and preserve the traditions of the Kenzo house, such as the importance of prints and the sense of worldliness and travel that has been intrinsic to every collection in the history of Kenzo”.
Today the Fashion House carries not only a clothing line for both men and women, but also produces internationally acclaimed perfumes, a skincare line called KenzoKI, and a home decor line under the Gokan Kobo label.
(Ad by Jean-Paul Goude - Spring 2013)
* Images from Pintrest.com, theblondsalad.com, thestylescrapbook.com, and GQ