Presented By:Isha Gupta

The House of KENZO was founded in Paris in 1970 by Takada Kenzo.

Kenzo, a native of Japan, attended Tokyo’s prestigious Bunka Fashion College .

Kenzo has been the most prominent traveler in fashion but also the most multicultural and the most syncretistic.

Insisting on the diversity and compatibility of ethnic styles and cultural options from all parts of the world, Kenzo has steadfastly mixed styles.

In 1958 he joined the predominantly female student body of the Bunka Gakuen School of Fashion.

In 1960 he began working for the Sanai department store as a designer of girl’s clothing, making up to 40 styles every month.

In 1964 Kenzo moved to Paris . Over the next few years, he worked for various departmental stores, the Pisanti textile group and Relations Textiles.

In 1970 Kenzo opened his own boutique called “Jungle Jap”

Selling loose casual clothes, smock tent dresses, and huge striped dungarees with elephant legs.

He enlarged armholes and changed the shoulder shape and introduced 100% cotton fabrics.

His predilection is for simplified child-like shapes like pullover vests, knee length shorts, mini coats, sweater dresses, made fresh by such foreign nuances as Kimono sleeves (unusual in knitted clothing) and oversized berets.

In 1971 Jungle Jap designs were featured in American Vogue as the next development in the Paris boutique scene.

In 1972 Kenzo’s show at the Gare d’Orsay was very successful.

In 1975 his first collections were shown in Tokyo.

In 1977 he presented his collections in New York. 

In 1978 he became known as the “Great White designer” although his designs were very colourful indeed and his styles amazingly diverse.

In1979 his collection was shown in Zurich for the first time. His motifs are flowers and leaves, even his perfume bottle is a leaf. He likes animal prints, tartans and daring colour combinations.

In 1986 Kenzo Takada called his menswear collection “Around the World in Eighty Days,” but that expedition had long been underway in Kenzo’s clothes for women and men.

Kenzo, after all, emerged first as a designer of poor-boy-style skinny sweaters.

By the early 1990s, Kenzo’s company, which boasted 37 boutiques worldwide and 124 sales outlets, was acquired by the LVMH

Kenzo announced his retirement in 1999 and celebrated his 30-year career with a stadium celebration that included a Kenzo retrospective and his final collection, spring-summer 2000.

In 2005, Kenzo reappeared as a decoration designer presenting “Gokan Kobo” (”workshop of the five senses”), a brand of tableware, home objects and furniture.

“It pleases me when people say I have influence. But I am influenced by the world that says I influence it. The world I live in is my influence.” Kenzo Takada

Thanking you for your time and kind patience.