Scene setting: Walking into ‘Jungle Jap’, the first boutique which Kenzo Takada opened in Paris’ Galerie Vivienne in 1970 would have been a visually stimulating experience. Paintings of Henri Rousseau’s The Dream painted by Takada and his friends lined the walls, and his bright, easy cotton pieces populated the store. Carol Lim and Humberto Leon’s Memento collections for Kenzo, pay tribute to the heritage of the brand’s founder, and have previously nodded to his expertise in denim, florals and knitwear. They’ve also featured dramatic and immersive show experiences.
For Memento’s 4th collection, guests were installed on tiered seating sections inside the performing arts space Halle des Blancs Manteaux. As the show began, a bright clothing-clad troupe of performers appeared in the centre of the space, launching into an energetic routine, orchestrated by movement director and choreographer Paul Sadot and choreographer Nqobilé Danseur. It wasn’t just the performers that moved. As the show progressed, the seating sections began to rotate, moving guests around the space.
Mood board: When Kenzo Takada burst onto the scene in the 1970s, his prismatic and horticultural prints took the fashion world by storm. Lim and Leon paid tribute to Takada’s whimsical and tongue-in-cheek imagination, reproducing a painted tomatoes print from his S/S 1992 menswear collection. This was emblazoned across men’s shorts, trousers and shirts, and women’s smock dresses and mesh tops. The clothes had a punchy, pop-art pizzazz.
Team work: Lim and Leon have used dance to establish a new performative narrative within Kenzo’s kaleidoscopic history. Just look to Spike Jonze’s My Mutant Brain 2016 film for the brand’s Kenzo World fragrance, which subverted the slick and polished nature of beauty advertising, and featured a model dancing with abandon. The performers that bought Kenzo’s Memento 4 collection to life, provided an energetic antidote to a long day of fashion shows, and as the show climaxed, a host of editors and guests even rose to join them. §
