Lore of the Jungle

When Japanese-French fashion designer Kenzo Takada opened his first boutique in Paris in 1970, he named it Jungle Jap in tribute to the exotic art of the French postimpressionist Henri Rousseau. Nearly half a century later, creative directors Humberto Leon and Carol Lim paid homage to Rousseau’s painting The Dream, a surreal depiction of a nude woman reclining on a sofa surrounded by lush greenery and animals from the jungle, in Kenzo La Collection Memento N°3 for autumn/winter 2018. The vibrant palette and absurdist imagery of the artist and the label’s archives were the foundations of this outstanding collection of wearable art, which includes archival jacquard trousers, jackets, shearling coats, ruffled skirts, cable knit jumpers and tops decorated with jungle scenes and details from the painting. For pure pop flower power, there’s even a full-length tapestry poncho that recreates Rousseau’s foliage. In reviving Rousseau’s hot-house imagination, the collection brings wildlife into the urban jungle.