FASHION

WHAT MADE KENZO GREAT?

Kenzo's 1960's Paris Adventure

By Baoyi (Bonnie) Nie

A New Aesthetic

When people think of the fashion brand Kenzo nowadays, they think of a hoodie with an embroidered tiger head and a big logo, or possibly a bottle of perfume with a single red flower standing at alert. That’s a completely different type of brand presence than the one its creator and founder Kenzo Takada made famous in the early 1970’s. Then he wasn’t selling high-priced brand extensions of his work, but was one of the most fabulous and innovative designers in the world.

Takada was born on February 27, 1939 in Himeji, Japan. In 1958, he studied at the Bunka Gakuen School of Fashion in Tokyo, which was the first year men could attend the school. A few years later, Takada moved to Paris. He sold fashion sketches to Louis Féraud and designed for prêt-a-porter models and the magazine Elle and Jardin des Modes. Even though fame seems effortless, most famous people struggle to get there and Takada was no exception. When he first came to Paris in 1964, he didn’t have a job or money, or even speak French, but he was ambitious — about fashion, about what he could accomplish, and about his vision of the world. He writes movingly of his first four or five years in Paris:

My memories

I watched and observed what Parisian chic and elegance mean. Whether it is haute couture or prêt-a-porter, French clothes are well fitted to the body. Well cut, fitted and finished impeccably, and they have curves. That is Parisian chic and elegance. Such clothes-making has its own rules for its shapes, fabric selections, color combinations, and it seemed to me these clothes… Those are all confines within a stubborn frame of mind. That was suffocating for me.

In this quote we can see some of Takada’s obsessions that would transfer from Paris to Tokyo over the next few years — his concern with the body, his concern with everyday elegance, his interest in creating clothes that demand contemplation. Also he picks up the Parisian tendency to use different shapes, interesting fabrics, and wild color combinations. All these become part of Takada’s signature style and they all begin with his study of late-1960’s Paris. I want to go back to that moment, what we might call the dawn of the Kenzo Takada style and detail how important Paris was to his incredible 1970’s collections which made him world famous.

When Takada came to Paris, fashion was experiencing a huge change. Several couture brands (Dior, Rabanne, Regourgier) shifted to modern ready-to-wear, which influenced Takada’s future success. He was keenly aware of the economic and social changes in the fashion industry, and looked to take advantage of those changes in what we might describe as Parisian style filtered through a Japanese sensibility.

Kenzo at his store in Paris

Although by 1964 the idea of everyday elegance was under attack by a new wave of designers, that tradition was still alive and well in Paris. Tradition is hard to kill. In the 1960s, the great fashion designer André Courrèges made triangle mini dresses, ankle flat boots, and used primary colors as a way of creating a kind of modernism in women’s wear. Courrèges challenged the old couture style by abandoning anything that limited movement, such as bras and girdles.

It’s not hard to see Courrèges’ influence on Takada and how both designers express the turmoil of the 1960s. However, Takada did it in his own way and pushed the tenets of freedom even further. In his 1971-72 Autumn/Winter Collection, he caught the eye of western fashion. He even named his collection as anti-couture. Inspired by the Japanese kimono, he cut wide armholes and made the shoulders shift further down the arm, which created a new shape for sleeves and brought a greater freedom of movement. At that time, no one did this in Paris and the liberal kimono cut was completely different from the traditional French cut, which aimed for the curve of body shapes.

Kenzo being Kenzo

Takada blurred the lines between couture and ready-to-wear from the 1960’s. He defined the new everyday elegance and combined comfort and style. If the femininity of the 1960s was a miniskirt, then for Takada 70s femininity was a comfortable, wide skirt. In his Autumn/Winter 73-74 collection, he introduced the idea of the totally free woman —checked patterns trimmed with floral scarves wrapped around the head, men’s suit jackets and long, pleated dresses with flounced hems and low-heeled boots underneath. Each item has its own pattern and color, and comes together under the new liberating ideas of the 1970s.

Kenzo being Kenzo again

Textile was another important element in Takada’s fashion philosophy. At the beginning of his career, Takada was famous for mixing different kinds of fabric, such as checks, stripes and floral prints. In the beginning, Takada could not afford the fabrics that he wanted to use for his designs. He brought some fabrics from Japan and brought fabrics from flea markets and rearranged them to create whole and complete pieces. People’s taste started to shift from single color blocks to collages and a kaleidoscopic mish mash of everything he could get a hold of.

It was the beginning of a new aesthetic and fashion was never the same. I know that’s kind of lame, a little overwrought and melodramatic, but you know what, it’s true.

©Bonnie Nie and the CCA Arts Review