COVID kills flamboyant fashion designer
Kenzo Takada, who has died of Covid-19 aged 81, was a Japanese fashion designer whose use of bold, bright colours and flower prints, often jarring in their juxtaposition, was matched with a theatrical delivery in his shows.
His audacious palette partnered cuts that allowed for big looping armholes, droopy dungarees and oblique shoulder contours.
His catwalk shows were not modest. In 1978 and 1979 he hosted two celebrated extravaganzas in a circus tent with models mixing with a ringmaster, horses and an orchestra. The show stopper was Kenzo circling the arena on an elephant.
His signature brand proved both commercially and critically successful, resulting in his eponymous Kenzo label being sold in 1993 to the LVMH group, the luxury company that includes Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Donna Karan. He continued as chief designer for six years.
Kenzo Takada was born on Feb. 27, 1939, in Himeji, Japan. Against the wishes of his family, he studied at Bunka Fashion College, where he was one of the first male students.
In 1960 he won the prestigious Soen Prize, awarded to an emerging designer of distinction. But it was in Paris, where he moved in 1964 and would live for the rest of his life, that his work settled into a cohesive style. He attended shows, networked furiously and sold his fledgling designs, mere sketches, to contemporaries such as Louis Feraud.
His distinctive appearance, which morphed over the years from mop- topped bohemian to baronial gent, made him an ideal ambassador for his designs and found him in the company of Elton John and Alain Delon. And the extravagance of his shows continued with trapeze artists and cabarets.
He blended the old and the new with moddish suits and overcoats dashed with vivid hues. “Since men must work, they must be classy, but they also must be traditional as there is much resistance to change,” he explained.
As with many fashion labels, he expanded into the lucrative world of perfumery. His inaugural line was Kenzo de Kenzo, and further scents followed. A men’s fragrance arrived in 1991, followed 10 years later by a skincare line, Kenzoki.
He retired from his eponymous house in 1999. He came out of retirement in 2005, with a focus on objects and furniture.