Hot on the heels of
Roland Mouret’s appointment as creative director of
Robert Clergerie,
Kenzo announced today that
Opening Ceremony founders
Humberto Leon and
Carol Lim are taking over as the label’s creative directing duo. The
LVMH-owned Japanese label bid adieu to former director
Antonio Marras after his final show at Men’s Paris Fashion Week in June. (We wonder whose musical chair he will take next.)
Pierre-Yves Roussel, CEO of LVMH’s fashion division, considered 25 candidates for the job of creative director, and though he couldn’t decide on just one, the lead duo are practically sure to re-establish the brand in the U.S. after an eight-year absence.
The two 36-year-olds have never been formally trained in design and plan to hire a team of skilled designers to make their creativity come to life. What they lack in pattern-making skills, they are bound to make up for in matters of retail, marketing, collaboration, and overall company expansion. With a flair for knowing how to make clothing with an air of cool and an indescribable allure, there’s no reason Leon and Lim’s fresh take on fashion won’t be successful at Kenzo. The pair will show their first collection in October for Spring 2012.
WHAT THEY SAID…
Leon and Lim: “We are thrilled to take Kenzo, a source of great inspiration for us, into the future with our generation and the next in mind.”
Pierre-Yves Roussel, CEO of LVMH’s fashion division: “It’s great to bring this young, contemporary generation into Kenzo. They’re really embracing what was the origin of Kenzo—that Jungle spirit. What we need now is something which has more energy, which is looking forward in terms of addressing a new generation.”
Cathy Horyn, the New York Times: “The retailers are good at creating contemporary products and, more, they’re good at communicating what they do, and Kenzo, which needed new excitement, will provide them with a bigger stage, not to mention the resources of LVMH, which has owned the label since 1993.”
Belinda White, Telegraph UK: Could outgoing designer Antonio Marras be next on at Dior?
Julia Rubin, Styleite: “We’re extremely excited to see what these two cook up. If anyone can resuscitate the brand, it’s them.”
WHAT WE SAID…
Randi Bergman, online editor: Given that OC essentially holds the patent for all things fresh, relevant and cool, Humberto and Carol seem the perfect choice to resurrect a label that started in very much the same vein. The duo are already quite routed in Japanese aesthetics themselves (they held a yearlong celebration of Japanese fashion in 2008 and 2009 and often collaborate with Japanese designers like
Rei Kawakubo) so I’m thinking they’ll do founder
Kenzo Tadaka justice.
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