Kenzo’s Hig
H&M teams up with one of the most iconic designers of the 1980s for...
ANYONE old enough to remember fashion in the Eighties will have a special place in their heart for kenzo. Bold flower and animal prints in rainbow colours epitomised the confident attitude of the decade.
By the late Nineties, however, kenzo’s brash vibrancy no longer seemed to fit the mood of the moment. The company was sold and diversified. And no one much cared any more. until a few years back when Carol Lim and Humberto Leon founders of cult u.S. retailer Open Ceremony, took over as creative directory and the label began the journey back out of the fashion wilderness. This week, you
should prepare for a new dose of Kenzo mania as h&M unveils its collaboration with the label.
And mania isn’t too dramatic a word if the online excitement in advance of Thursday’s launch is anything to go by.
A jacket priced at just over £100 has already been spotted on eBay for more than £700 while a £29.99 hat has a guide price of £150. Buyers will also have to pay postage from France.
The Kenzo collaboration is the latest in a long line of designer couplings for h&M, which began in 2004 with Karl Lagerfeld and has included Jimmy Choo, Lanvin and versace along the way.
Last year’s Balmain for h&M collection caused a stampede — police had to calm the frenzied fashionistas at the regent Street store. And it isn’t just h&M’s traditional young shoppers who are expected to be massing outside the stores.
‘We love that there will be kids who will be wearing Kenzo for the first time, alongside those lucky enough to remember the Kenzo Takada era, who will come to the collection for a taste of their heritage and to wear the prints and styles that they once loved all over again,’ says Carol Lim.
So, what should you buy this time around? The long-length layered skirts and shirts in the famous Kenzo tiger print are eminently wearable. Quilted, reversible kimonos are also extremely versatile.
With prices from £7.99 for accessories and averaging around £55, this party season you’ll be able to afford to relive your most fashionable Christmases . . . if you are fast enough to snap them up.