What KENZO is known for
Kenzo Takada’s jungle-print house — Japanese joy in Paris since 1970, tiger sweaters through the Nigo era.
Kenzo Takada arrived in Paris from Japan in 1964 with a suitcase and a Bunka Fashion College training, and in 1970 opened a boutique he painted with jungle vines — Jungle Jap — in the Galerie Vivienne. What followed was the happiest revolution in Paris fashion: kimono cutting freed from Western darts, folkloric prints piled on prints, shows that ended in confetti. He was the first Japanese designer to conquer Paris, and he did it with joy rather than rupture.
The tiger arrived as the emblem of that exuberance and never left. Under LVMH since 1993, the house cycled through eras — Humberto Leon and Carol Lim's tiger-sweatshirt phenomenon made it streetwear's darling — before Nigo, founder of A Bathing Ape and Takada's fellow Bunka alumnus, took the studio in 2021: the first Japanese artistic director since the founder.
Takada died in 2020, months before the homecoming he'd have loved. Nigo's Kenzo — varsity workwear, boke flowers, tigers redrawn — keeps the founding bargain: Japanese eyes, Parisian address, happiness as a luxury good.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — Tiger sweaters and Nigo-era streetwear.
France
More in Paris
- Balenciaga — Paris
- Bourrienne Paris X — Paris
- Cartier — Paris
- Céline — Paris
- Chanel — Paris
- Charvet — Paris
- Creed — Paris
- Dior — Paris
Where next
- Avnier — Paris
- Les Deux — Copenhagen
- Officine81 — Lecce
Hand-curated for ORBIS · no paid placement