There is change in the air at Kenzo. According to a quote attributed to Nigo, its creative director since 2021: “We’re going back to the beginning, to the heart of what Kenzo is and always has been. Kenzo Takada’s legacy is a maison built on color, freedom, and joy. I wanted to create a personal tribute to our founder and present it here, in his home. Fall 2026 is about homecomings and an homage.”
Starting with the home, this presentation was held in the beautiful Bastille house that was built by founder Kenzo Takada, and in which he lived from 1993 until 2009. Complete with a koi pond, and running to around 10,000 square feet, this modernist masterpiece was, reputedly, once the epicenter of a wild party scene. Fascinatingly, it has almost no street-facing facade, lying almost entirely hidden within the surrounding shell of more conventional Parisian housing.
Moving onto the homage, the look and presentation of this collection (and then a few calls after it) communicated that Joshua Bullen, who was appointed design director at Kenzo 12 months ago, has departed. Instead of the much more youthful direction Nigo had directed Bullen to take, this collection diverted towards a more classically leaning, luxed-up interpretation of the founder’s design legacy.
The wonderful floral-embroidered full skirts, almost folkloric, were drawn pretty directly from that legacy. Elsewhere Nigo presented a gently contemporary wardrobe that applied the founder’s Japanese tailoring motifs to pieces made to fit modern creative professional lifestyles. There was still an emphasis on Yankee-style influenced Americana, varsity jackets and sweaters and such, but much more understatedly than in recent seasons. A new six-pointed cross, double-K monogram applied to a black and yellow jacket and the buckle of a belt suggested the imminent codification of brand language across categories outside clothing. There was a very cute kite bag that referenced the founder’s history. The bicolor suits were also a flashback reference. Denim, a category specialized in by both Takada and Nigo, was sparsely represented, but appealing when it appeared.
Nigo and the Kenzo executive team have evidently embarked upon a fresh re-renovation of the house. The lack of a show plus the restart rhetoric made this season feel like a beat taken before a more assertive gesture, and perhaps the imposition of more monogram, in the seasons ahead. One thing to ponder as they plan is whether Kenzo would better belong on the womenswear schedule: this might more truly reflect both the founder’s beginning, and the heart of what he built to such great acclaim.
