Wendy Hughes Chuck remembers designer Kenzo Takada. Wendy writes: When I read on Monday that Kenzo Takada had died, aged 81, in a Paris hospital of complications from Covid-19, I dug out my only Kenzo-designed possession, a square woollen scarf in chevrons and stripes in black, brown, grey and cream, and wore it in memory of this talented and innovative Japanese designer. My husband, Alan, also wore a Kenzo-designed sweater I gave him over 20 years ago which is still going strong.
Kenzo Takada was the first Japanese dress designer to break into the cut-throat world of Paris fashion design.
Takada was born in Himeji, near Osaka, in 1939. He disappointed his parents by dropping out of his literature course at Kobe University to enrol at the Bunka College of Fashion in Tokyo. In 1965 on the recommendation of his teacher and mentor, he took off for Paris by ship. He arrived penniless with very little French but was soon to set the fashion world on fire.
He soon found work as a freelance designer. By 1970, Kenzo had established his own boutique, Jungle Jap, in the Galerie Vivienne near the Louvre. He loved the work of artist Henri Rousseau and decorated the walls of his boutique himself with Rousseau-like jungle scenes. His initial clothes designs were all in cotton, the only fabric he could afford. He patched together various swatches of colourful fabric bought in a Paris market, creating that unique Kenzo look.
His big break was when one of his models was put on the cover of Elle magazine and soon his designs were being featured in Vogue USA.
His somewhat naïve choice of the name “Jap” for his brand soon got him into trouble in America where the term was regarded as a derogatory and racist word which had been used to describe Japanese Americans who were interned as “enemy aliens” during the Second World War. Takada himself did not feel the term was derogatory but he soon changed his brand name to his first name, Kenzo.
His designs for women were playful, and colourful. He told the doyenne of fashion journalism, Suzy Menkes, that he “wanted to make happy clothes.”
In 1983 he launched his first menswear collection and in 1987 branched out into home furnishings, soon followed by Kenzo Parfums, Kenzo Eyewear and skincare products.
When in 1990 his partner, Xavier de Castello, died of AIDS and his business manager had a stroke, Kenzo felt he could not continue alone. He sold his business in 1993 to the giant LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) which still owns the Kenzo brand. He continued to design for Kenzo for a further six years. His final show was in 1999. An Italian designer, Antonio Marras, took over as creative director. Marras left in 2011 and was succeeded by Umberto Leon and Carol Kim who reference the Kenzo archives in their current designs.
Kenzo was awarded a medal of honour by the Japanese Government in 1999 and in 2016 was made a Chevalier (Knight) of the French Légion d’Honneur.
The NGV has just one Kenzo designed dress in its collection. It is a brown corduroy dress with asymmetric closure, long sleeves and gathered collar, cuffs and hem. Cut loosely to hip, the dress has a full skirt gathered into the hip seam. The collar, cuffs and hem flounce are trimmed with black, red and cream corduroy. It was designed for Kenzo’s Autumn/Winter show of 1978/79 and gifted to the NGV by Grazia Gunn in 2010.
A memoir called simply Kenzo Takada was published in 2019 by ACC Art Books. It is written by Kazuko Masui, a Paris-based foreign correspondent for a Japanese women’s magazine and her daughter, Chihire. Masui met Kenzo shortly after his arrival in Paris in 1965. It is a coffee table style look-book with hand-coloured sketches and personal photos.
For more details of Kenzo’s life as a fashion designer, take a look at the You Tube film, Renegades of Fashion No. 5: Kenzo Takada, made in March 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVUgaIslkNY
Thank you, Wendy, for bringing colour, joy and play into our world.
Thankyou Wendy, such a fitting tribute written with insight and affection!
Robyn
Thank you, Wendy for your insights prompting memories of Kenzo’s fashion uniqueness. Kenzo made a delicate but tenacious entrance into the haute couture scene and was feted when the business desired youth and innovation beyond Parisian style, to revive revenue streams. Clive James Paris fashion show 1980, filmed backstage at Paris Fashion week, presented James’s puzzled declaration that only a Japanese design aesthetic could successfully combine tartans with rose patterns. Kenzo’s surprising, exotic mixtures like geometrics with florals initially bemused even appalled traditionalists becoming beautiful inspirations now accepted, even classic.
Dear Wendy
I remember Kenzo designs. What an interesting and determined young man he was!
And I enjoyed your humour, ‘Alan Chuck teams his Kenzo sweater with his Covid mask in Ashburton.”
Ah, just as well Kenzo was not around to see that!, although, on the other hand, what might he have designed?
Thankyou for a fine tribute to bring Kenzo back to memory for us.
Thanks, Wendy
Yes, I was sad to hear the news about his death. My favourite garments designed by him – there were many – but I particularly liked the ‘Gipsey’ fabrics and clothes, the series called ‘Flowers also in Winter’ and his long and layered coats.