30 fashion designers you should know... #28

KENZO TAKADA

Originally born in Himeji, Japan in 1939, Kenzo Takada enrolled in the well-known Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo at the age of nineteen and as one of the first males to do so. Seven years later he moved to Paris on a six-week sea journey, had little money, knew no one, spoke not a word of French. But that man was not one to give up easily. It took him five years to raise the money to open his first boutique, just around the corner from the Palais Royal. Kenzo renovated and decorated his boutique Jungle Jap, inspired by the jungle paintings of Henri Rousseau. In 1970 he opened its doors and Kenzo showed his first collection with fabrics bought at bargain prices from a nearby market. Popularity increased and Jungle Jap soon became the favorite label of young fashionable models. Kenzo invented the ethnic look, combining colors, patterns, cuts and style elements from all over the world. It was the time when people were on a spiritual journey all around the world and the hippie style was all the rage. Small presentations where totally overwhelmed with succes, his seamstresses could no longer keep up with the flood of orders and his designs were being copied everywhere. With his innovative ideas, Kenzo proved to the Paris fashion scene that even a non-Frenchman could build up and direct a French fashion house. At the age of sixty, Kenzo Takada announced his retirement. Since 2003 Sardinian Antonio Marras, now artistic director of the house, has been quite succesful continuing Kenzo's concept of a multicolor journey around the world.