THE DEMISE OF A FASHION ICON, KENZO TAKADA.
When the year 2020 started, we were all excited and the thought of strategising on how to achieve our plans was all we had as our motivation. However, just like Mike Tyson’s popular quote, ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth’, our planet has been dealt a devastating blow due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
When the virus initially started spreading, we felt not many people will contract the virus and it wasn’t going to be serious or life-threatening. But we were all wrong, many countries haven’t been spared, and leaders of the most advanced countries were not exempted from the wrath of the pandemic. Boris Johnson (Prime Minister of the UK) and Donald J Trump (President of the U.S.) have both made the list of the over 30million cases recorded of Covid-19.
As soon as we thought the end was near with the news of tremendous progress in the vaccines trials, we were hit with breaking news of the demise of a fashion icon from East Asia, Kenzo Takada. Kenzo was known for his exuberant prints and for being one of the most amazing fashion designers with a Japanese origin. He died on Sunday (October 4, 2020) as a result of complication linked to Covid-19 at the American Hospital in Paris at the age of 81.
Kenzo’s life was a remarkable one which is worth celebrating. Without knowing what the future had in store for him, he ventured out of the place he called home in Japan to Paris in 1965 despite having no grasp of the French Language. Kenzo was determined to be successful without because all odds were against him. He sold sketches of designs to fashion houses and also worked as a Stylist for a textile manufacturer for survival before deciding to dive head-on into the fashion industry. Kenzo’s path into the fashion world was already laid, he only needed a matter of time for him to walk that route since he was already experienced as a student at Tokyo’s Bunka Fashion College before moving to France.
Kenzo’s fashion house was founded in 1970 in Paris, and the first boutique was opened in Galerie Vivienne. One interesting thing I believe worked for Kenzo was that he didn’t forget his roots, he tried as much as possible to incorporate a Japanese inspired design into his work. The death of his life partner (Xavier de Castella) in 1990 and the stroke his business partner had made him have a rethink about everything he knows as this was quite devastating. As a result, he sold his company in 1993 to LVMH, and as we all know, most of the things touched by LVMH turns into gold.
Kenzo is a legend and he will always be celebrated as one. Although he is no longer with us, his memories will forever liveth as a man who abandoned status-quo for the unusual, and he became successful and celebrated in a very competitive industry. If this doesn’t inspire you, I don’t know what else will do the trick.
As usual, the Dartemuv team just want to say thank you for reading this article and we hope it was quite insightful……
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