Kenzo Takada, first Japanese designer to conquer Paris fashion, dies from COVID-19
05 October, 2020
Japan's most famous fashion designer Kenzo Takada, founder of the global Kenzo brand, died in the French capital on Sunday aged 81 after contracting the coronavirus.
Takada died of problems associated with COVID-19 at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a residential suburb on the western outskirts of the capital, his spokesman told French media.
Tributes have poured set for Takada, the first Japanese designer to decamp to Paris and known specifically for his signature floral prints.
"Today, his optimism, zest forever and generosity continue being pillars of our Maison (House). He'll be greatly missed and always remembered," the Kenzo fashion house he founded wrote on Twitter.
He "helped to create a new page popular, at the confluence of the East and the West", said Ralph Toledano of the Haute Couture Federation.
His death comes 50 years after he launched his first collection in Paris, which he adopted as his home. "Every wall, every sky and every passer-by helps me build my collections," he once said of the town.
He retired from fashion in 1999, six years after selling his brand to luxury conglomerate LVMH, and dedicated his time to one-off projects including a design collection at the start of this year.
DREAMT OF PARIS
Born in 1939 right into a family of hoteliers, he thought we would study art not catering, learning to be a star pupil at Toyko's Bunka Gakuen college, where he carried off the top prize. He went on to work for Sanai, a significant chain of fashion shops, but dreamt of Paris.
The 1964 Olympic Games finally gave him his possibility to come to Europe. The block of flats where he was renting an apartment was to be demolished to create way for a stadium.
Like all the tenants, he was paid compensation and made a decision to blow the money on a one-way ticket on a cargo boat to Marseille.
Arriving in Paris in the winter of 1965, hardly speaking any French, the only job he could easily get was in a poodle parlour.
In 1970, however, he took the lease of premises in the Galerie Vivienne, a rather down-at-heel shopping arcade. "With a few friends for 90 days we painted the walls with jungle scenes like Le Douanier Rousseau's Snake Charmer and baptised it Jungle Jap," he recalled later.
His first show using amateur models to save lots of money happened there. Among only 20 persons invited included the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, who liked the collection so much she ran it on leading cover.
He became a name almost overnight, and continued to revitalise the knitwear industry along with his contemporary interpretations.
By the first 1980s, when other Japanese designers were making their way in Paris, Takada was already well established on the French fashion scene.
His first men's collection was presented in 1983 and his first perfume, Kenzo Kenzo, in 1988.
From the early 1980s boutiques opened around the globe in New York, London, Milan, Toyko and Rome, followed later by Hong Kong, Munich, Venice, Bangkok and Singapore.
PARIS MOURNS A SON
Kenzo's romantic style, with its eclectic mix of colour, touches of exoticism, ethnic prints and folksy embroidery, suited the mood of the 1970s but adapted well to the sharper-looking 1980s and 1990s.
He drew inspiration from his travels and Japanese work clothes, such as for example his favourite military tunics and coats. Peruvian striped blanket throws, colourful shawls, oriental blouses, peasant smocks, printed velvet, were all part of his signature.
It was a way of measuring his success that he was notoriously prey to copyists. British designer Jasper Conran, interviewed on the problem, said he knew of a company in South Africa specialising in ripping off Kenzo, seam for seam. "They make a lot of money - a lot more than Kenzo I reckon - but there is nothing he can do about any of it."
He guarded his privacy because they build himself a house in the country in the heart of Paris, only a few yards from the Bastille opera house, filled with authentic tea pavilion and a pool of carp.
"A designer with immense talent, he gave colour and light their rightful place in fashion," said Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo on Twitter. "Paris is today mourning among its sons."
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