Our last show of Paris and OMG there’s a bungee situation at Kenzo. Lots of bouncy abseiling boys and girls pon the walls on the Lycée Camille Sée. Properly fab. Collection itself, for both men and women, came from two Japanese figures – supermodel Sayoko Yamaguchi and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. Carol and Humberto said that the pioneering Ryuichi has long been an inspiration to their work, whilst Sayoko was a muse of Kenzo Takada himself that they’d become obsessed with after seeing images of her in the archive. Those photographs spoke of this incredible way that Sayoko had of clashing patterns and prints, silhouettes and colours.
So that’s what the pair did here – graphic florals sat next to the same print in a clashing colour, stripes met stripes, t-shirts were emblazoned with sporty racing prints. Slashes of sequins, metallic silks, hippyish paisleys. The women’s silhouette riffed on the era that the designers so often refer to – the 1980s – loads of ruffles, asymmetric dresses that fell off the shoulders, dresses that rushed along the body and sleeves. Menswear was a little bit more restrained – clean, strong-shouldered tailoring was worn with high-waisted 50s style trousers, a cut found throughout. It meant everything was tucked-in – fluffy neon jumpers, t-shirts printed with Ryuichi’s face, bold, boxy shirting. Honestly there’s so much more good stuff to say here, but we have actually run out of words. All you need to know it that we liked it. We really really liked it. And with that, over and out Paris. We’re off to lie in a darkened room.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
