Kenzo was founded in Paris in 1970 by Japanese designer Kenzo Takada, who opened his first boutique in the Galerie Vivienne. The early label, Jungle Jap, developed a design language that brought Asian and European cultural influences together with unconventional combinations of colors and patterns and multicolored jungle motifs. Menswear followed in 1983, and Kenzo Jeans and Kenzo Jungle extended the house’s reach in 1986. Takada left the artistic-director role in 1999, after which a succession of creative directors shaped the house. Humberto Leon and Carol Lim joined in 2011, Felipe Oliveira Baptista became artistic director in 2019, and Nigo was named artistic director in September 2021. The appointment restored Japanese creative authorship and combined Nigo’s streetwear vocabulary with Kenzo’s inherited codes of flowers, color, and wild animals. Kenzo entered perfumery in 1988. Flower by Kenzo, launched in 2000 and created by Alberto Morillas, is described as an icon in the world of perfumes, built around a fusion of city and nature and a modern Paris–Tokyo connection.
