Kenzo brand history – an enchanting story about a true fashion empire

Kenzo Takada was born in Himeji, a city located in Hyogo Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. Later, he had been studying at the Bunka College of Fashion in Tokyo.

The Kenzo brand pieces represent the conjunction of European and Eastern design, and until this day, Kenzo has been a brand that is proud of celebrating multiculturalism and diversity.

Takada, traveled the world to understand different cultures and their traditions and embodied its long-established prints, patterns into the brand creations, which later became the famous Kenzo brand signature. Due to some personal reasons, Takeda announced his retirement in 1999, leaving the creative directing to Roy Krejberg and Gilles Rosier.

From 2008 until 2011, the creative director of the Kenzo brand was Antonio Marras, but his Asian-American co-creative directors Carol Lim and Humberto Leon were the duo that helped Kenzo to enter the Haute Couture scene.

The most recognized pattern of tigers and the glittering “evil eyes” prints were the ideas of Lim and Leon, and they proved that Takada left the Kenzo brand heritage in good hands, to the people who understood the ideas and values of the brand and continued to develop them in the right direction.