Nigo, Creative Director of Kenzo.
Spontaneous / authentic / free-spirited / cheeky
Origin: Paris, France
Claiming a daring and borderless fashion that celebrates nature and cultural diversity
Kenzo Takada* was born in 1939 in Himeji, 60 miles west of Osaka, as a son of a tea-house owner. His early years were clouded by the Second World War and post-war life in a devastated Japan. He had nothing culturally, he remembered, but American films and his own drawings. He developed a love for fashion from reading his sisters' magazines, and left Kobe University, where he was studying literature, in 1958 to attend the Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, where he was one of the first male students.
One of his tutors had encouraged him to travel to Paris and his opportunity came when the government commandeered his flat as part of the preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and gave him ten months’ rent as compensation.
“Fashion is like eating. You shouldn’t stick to the same menu”
Apart from his academic history in fashion, Takada never truly cared about convention of High Fashion, as he let loose his fantasy to demonstrate that one can be creative while being accessible to most people. From his first show on in the Galerie Vivienne (where he also opened his first boutique), his style became an epitome of the times. The brand made of boldness and elegance was renamed “Kenzo” in the early 80's and from then on inspired a new generation of young women.
