Kenzo Pants Section:
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.
In 1975 his first collections were shown in Tokyo. Two years afterwards, Kenzo presented his collections in New York. In 1978 he became known as the "Great White designer" although his designs were very colourful and his styles amazingly diverse. A year later, Kenzo's collection was shown in Zurich, Switzerland for the first time.
In 1990 Kenzo's empire expanded to include menswear, Kenzo jeans, children's wear and other products.
Kitmeout - Today's Fashion Online
