COVETED MAGAZINE PAGE 67
Kenzo was born in Japan and lives in Paris. After a long
journey in his brand, the fashion designer retired in order
to pursue his dream. In 1999, six years after selling his
eponymous brand to the LVMH group, Kenzo Takada
withdrew from the fashion world. Although he was not
completely stopped, developing exclusive collaborations
in the most varied areas, the Japanese designer confessed
us that he “missed” the work. «Twenty years ago I didn’t
want to work anymore, I wanted to travel», explained the
fashion designer, who presented his first exhibition at
Galerie Vivienne in 1970, triggering the brand’s success.
After a long time doing partnerships and collaborations
with the best interior design, cosmetic and perfume
brands, the designer ended up creating a concept interior
design brand called K3. The high-end interior design
brand was present at a Parisian home show and the new
K3 boutique in the French capital.
Always celebrating the lifestyle, Kenzo loves to have
people at home, and in order to bring his way of living
into the house of others was the key to creating K3.
To create k3, Kenzo involved around 250 people. The
collection stands out from others: the fabrics in the
collection feature various print with vivid colours such
as magenta, as well as subtle tones such as white, and
the detailed combination of silver and black. The brand
defines itself as being “soft and poetic”. The most
challenging part of creating the brand was the time.
“everything in September, the production and everything
so we’ve had 4 months to create everything. We’re very
happy to have such a team who is so committed that
we were all able to launch k3 on time and with a very
good product”. “We started 2 years ago, there were a
few ideas but nothing really finished. We just started
the production in September. Normally we would have
wanted to launch later but everyone was expecting for
us to launch in Paris. And of course, we will work in
improving the pieces”.
“ I want k3 to be very flexible and it could be able to do
any type of project.”
The brand’s first collection is based on and inspired
by nature and the Japanese cherry blossom Sakura, as
well as Maiko (geisha apprentice), with her delicate
and refined heart, says the brand. The final inspiration
there’s a real work on the patterns, on the fabrics, on the colour to find harmony,
and I really want to bring positivity and joy through these patterns. This is why
I wanted all the furniture to be simple so they could enhance and show the
pattern properly. If you look at all the furniture they all have simple lines, very
sleek design but then the pattern has a more intricate and complex contrast.
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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
of the collection consists of the three main concepts of majesty’s powerful and
monochromatic expression, the Shogun (military ruler), seen through exclusive prints
in bright colours.
All his creations carry a ‘kintsugi’ symbol, in honour of the Japanese art of repairing
broken porcelain and ceramics with lacquer, mixed with powdered gold. Japan
continues to be the biggest inspiration of the fashion designer. In k3, the designer
used ‘Kensugi’ as a visual identity in the brand. “We’re using the Japanese culture and
giving it a more modern and contemporary twist.”, the designer combines Japanese and
western aesthetics and interprets them in his own way.
“The idea would be to create a different universe always inspired by nature and organic
shapes, but they would like to develop other themes because today we have 3. The idea
is to continue this while developing other themes.”
