Kenzo Aftershave Section:
Kenzo Takada was born in Kyoto, in the Hyogo region of Southern Japan in 1940. Dissatisfied with the literature studies prescribed by his traditional innkeeper
parents, Kenzo went to Tokyo, where he worked as a house painter and took evening classes in studio art. In 1958 Kenzo joined the predominantly female student body of the Bunka Gakuen School of Fashion. In 1960 he won a Japanese fashion award, the prestigious Soen prize. Kenzo began working for the Sanai department store as a designer of girl's clothing, making up to 40 styles every month.
In 1964 Kenzo moved to Paris. Eventually, he started sketching. The revolutionary new outfits drawn by Courreges were the inspiration for a series of 30 designs he made, 5 of which were accepted by designer Louis Feraud. Over the next few years, he worked for various departmental stores, the Pisanti textile group and Relations Textiles.
Six years later, Kenzo took over a former antique clothing store in disrepair and painted it himself. Then cutting and sewing a collection of his own designs, Kenzo took them round to the fashion magazines. By November he had moved to 28 passage Choiseul and almost immediately his clothes started attracting notice. A boutique in the Galeria Vivienne gave him the chance to introduce his own style to Parisiennes.
That same year, Kenzo opened his very own boutique called "Jungle Jap" selling loose casual clothes, smock tent dresses, and huge striped dungarees with elephant legs. He enlarged armholes and changed the shoulder shape and introduced 100% cotton fabrics. In 1971 Jungle Jap designs were featured in American Vogue as the next development in the Paris boutique scene. In 1972 Kenzo's show at the Gare d'Orsay was also very successful.
Kitmeout - Today's Fashion Online
