For the Fall 2018 instalment of their film campaign series French fashion house Kenzo tapped their co-creative director Humberto Leon for his directorial debut in the creation of their latest picture “The Everything.”
The film is a light-hearted narrative of a family of teenagers who brought together by their mutual peculiar superpowers.
Actress extraordinaire Milla Jovovich leads as the matriarch of the mutant squad which also includes actors Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smith-Mcphee and Sasha Frolova. Also featured, are actors Regina Hall and Jay Ellis along with a special appearance by filmmaker Spike Jonze. “The Everything” features Kenzo’s FW18 collection, along with pieces from La Collection Momento N°3 which is a collection of garments inspired by the brand’s archives. The film is to be released on the brand’s site on September 8th.
Kenzo FW18 by Ethan James GreenKenzo FW18 by Ethan James Green
Start 2018 as you mean to go on: KENZO has just released a new ‘Move’ collection designed to fuel your energy and activity for the year ahead. Combining the bold, punchy colours and the house’s signature Tiger logo on the shoe with a global cast of dancers in the new campaign, the Move series is guaranteed to put a spring in your step this month.
The dance-themed campaign brings together dancers from across the board – from ballet and hip hop to dance and electro. Choreographed by the creative duo ‘I Could Never Be A Dancer’, the campaign sees the cast pulling a series of fierce and frenetic shapes. It’s a new year: time to move!
Available online and in selected stores from January 2nd.
No stranger to innovation, Kenzo has launched a new initiate to give young talent a platform to make it in the industry.
Kenzo Season Zero sees three emerging film makers – Mati Diop, Baptist Penetticobra and Eduardo Williams – explore the question of ‘How do we inhabit the earth today in 2017’ working with A/W17 collections. Working across the broad theme of humans and their relationships with our world, the films weave fiction and documentary, telling stories o places such as Bolivia, France, United States or Argentina – and the compelling narratives of everyday life within them.
For spring summer 2016, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim – creative directors of Kenzo – have chosen the medium of film to produce their wares, with the 10-minute short: Snowbird. Written and directed by Sean Baker – who is still riding the wave of his critically acclaimed Tangerine, which is described as “a dramatic slapstick slice of life of two Los Angeles trans women” – the entire film was shot in what is becoming his usual style: on an iPhone.
Set in the eclectic expanse of ‘Slab City’, in the Californian Sonoran desert, the short shows Theo (played by Lee) delivering pieces of homemade cake to different residents of the unique community. Described as “a Mecca for eccentrics living off of the grid”, Slab City is touted as “a conglomeration of domestic structures cobbled together with all manner of material.”
As opposed to a glossy, all-star ensemble cast proffering a slick and stylised fashion film, as is so often the case, Kenzo and Sean Baker’s take is an altogether real (many of the cast are genuine residents of Slab City) representation of clothes in situ, which “eschews the glitz and glamour of fashion.”
This is yet another string Abbey Lee can add to her acting bow, after a successful role in Mad Max: Fury Road saw her receive much praise last year. Watch Snowbird in its entirety below, and shop the new season collection when it drops at kenzo.com.
For their AW15 campaign, Kenzo’s creative directors Humberto Leon and Carol Lim called upon independent filmmaker, Gregg Araki, to take a nostalgic trip back to the teenage wastelands he created for his Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy, and the result is a short film entitled Here Now.
In a similar world of 1997’s Nowhere, this film is shot in the same style and frame of mind but features a new cast of young stars, such as Avan Jogia, Grace Victoria Cox, Jacob Artist, Jane Levy and Nicole LaLiberte. The costumes are all from Kenzo’s AW15 menswear and womenswear collections, of course, and are styled to enhance the characters and narrative of Araki’s short. All the signifiers we’ve come to expect from the director are present: overwrought teenage rebellion and angst, rampant sexuality, a nun and yes, the pre-requisite Shoegaze song.
Our backstage series continues in Paris, where Twin sent photographer Alex Brunet to capture the behind the scenes highlights of Humberto Leon and Carol Lim’s autumn/winter 2015 presentation for Kenzo.
For their SS15 campaign video, Creative Directors Humberto Leon and Carol Lim once again called on the talents of Toilet Paper Magazine, a collective composed of artist Maurizio Cattelan, photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari and art director, Micol Talso. Set in a graphic and modern cityscape, we find ourselves emerged in an optimistic utopia, where nothing is what it seems.
“For us, TOILETPAPER were an obvious choice for us to work with on this project,” stated Leon and Lim. “The strength and impact of their work is often in the most subtle visual tricks which become more powerful the longer you are exposed to them.”
Kenzo is popping up in London’s Mayfair just in time for the holiday season. The new store will house both their men’s and women’s collections, accessories and limited edition items. You’ll also find their Holiday Collection, a capsule range full of festive sweaters and T-shirts featuring all the famous motifs and emblems we’ve come to love from the brand, such as the tiger, the eye and the Eiffel Tower, as well as newcomer, the Statue of Liberty.
The news of the new location also comes with the announcement that Kenzo Bruton Street will be closed for renovations until 2015.
Kenzo opens at 99 Mount Street London W1K tomorrow, November 27th.
KENZO’s creative directors, Carol Lim & Humberto Leon have teamed up with TOILETPAPER magazine creatives Maurizio Cattelan, Pierpaolo Ferrari and Micol Talso for the third time to create the advertising campaign for the autumn/winter 2014 collections. Inspired by the new season’s line, along with David Lynch and his oeuvre, they came up with yet another bright and bold campaign – one that is not forgotten easily.
To celebrate, they are also releasing the third volume of KENZINE, which will feature unseen images from the campaign shoot. With a limited run of only 2000 copies, we suggest getting to your nearest store stat. On September 27th that is, when they go on sale exclusively in KENZO stores worldwide and from March 2015 in other selected retail stores.
“For the third instalment in our collaboration with TOILETPAPER for our advertising campaigns, we worked with Maurizio, Micol and Pierpaolo to take people on a mysterious journey to an unfamiliar world. A place where the ordinary is slightly distorted, mirrors lead to other dimensions, and the strange and beautiful coexist in singular harmony. We love that David Lynch’s skewed and somewhat disruptive sense of storytelling seamlessly fits with how the TOILETPAPER approach image making and the final results speak for themselves. Needless to say we’re delighted with the outcome and hope everyone else enjoys the images as much as we do.” – Carol Lim & Humberto Leon
With AW14, Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, Kenzo’s Creative Directors looked to explore the myriad, fractal reflections of art into life and vice versa. Enlisting directors Partel Oliva and web/3D designers Kim Boutin and David Broner, AW14 is celebrated through an interactive 3D and video experience available online that features music by Fatima Al Qadiri and stars Sudanese-American model Grace Bol.
The videos and artworks will be displayed during a dedicated exhibition running from September 24h – 26th at Galerie 12Mail/Red Bull Space, 12 rue du Mail, Paris.
To find out more, experience the video and to also shop the collection, head to kenzo.com/fall2014.
Having grown up in southern California, Humberto and Carol’s LA heritage is intregal to the new direction of KENZO. Fusing street chic Parisian style with laid back west coast cool, they created the house’s new timeless handbag, Kalifornia, that blends KENZO’s French atelier craftsmanship with Humberto and Carol’s pacific coast nonchalance. Taking inspiration from the California tribes of beachcombers, bikers, and skaters, the lux bag has a deconstructed design and two “K“ zips on either side that double as pockets, in a nod to the biker style.
Kalifornia comes in four different styles; Gommato, Broken Floor, Mountain Print and Fluorescent, all with their own quirks and colourways.
The Kalifornia will be available from September 2014 from KENZO stores and online at kenzo.com.
For Spring/Summer 2014 Kenzo looked to America’s West Coast and in particular California in the 1960’s. To convey these themes, the brand collaborated with director Hala Matar and actors, Anton Yelchin and Lydia Hearst to create a short-film titled, Automobile Waltz, where we see the protagonists riding around in vintage cars, crashing into orchestras and carrying out stunted conversations, all in a set reminiscent with old Hollywood movies.
The connection between the cars and the collection is that they “both share the timelessness and classic feel,” states Matar. For Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, the wave prints recall an age of visiting the beach during the heyday of 60’s surfers.
Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, creative directors of KENZO recently announced another partnership with TOILETPAPER Magazine for the KENZO Spring-Summer 2014 campaigns for men, women accessories and kids.
Much in the vein of the KENZO Autumn-Winter 2013 campaign, the collaboration leans playfully towards the surreal and paints another picture of the KENZO universe.
Inspired by the primary KENZO Spring Summer themes for men and women, we are plunged into a fantasy world of giant fish, waves and mesmerising marine elements. Expressing KENZO’s love for art and culture, travel and the colourful, model and actress Devon Aoki features alongside Paul Bosche in the series of thought provoking images.
One has been able to spot jumpers, skirts and hats from the French fashion house KENZO, outside Fashion Week the last couple of seasons. It seems like everyone wants to wear something from their modern tailoring, innovative sportswear and creative prints.
In November this year they are launching a new bag. KENZO’s street chic Parisian heritage meets laid back west coast cool in the House’s new timeless handbag, Kalifornia.
Kalifornia brings their urban sensibilities, honed in downtown Manhattan, together with the spirit of sun-drenched afternoons between the shore and the pavement.
Kalifornia is relaxed, yet precise, blending KENZO’s French atelier craftsmanship with Humberto and Carol’s pacific coast nonchalance. The soft, deconstructed design is punctuated by two “K“ zip details flanking either side of the bag that double as pockets, an ode to the ultimate biker’s perfecto.
The bag is available in multiple colour ways including biker black and racer red.
Sweatshirts are not just for lazing around – pairing them on top of shirts with heels is just one chic alternative. Whichever way you like to wear yours, there is a great array of designer jumpers to choose from and with the sales still in motion, now is the perfect time to buy. Especially if temperatures are set to hit just a lousy 2 degrees in London this weekend. Brrr.
Right now there’s one opening ceremony that we’re excited about. Yep, innovative retailers and purveyors of global cool Humberto Leon and Carol Lim of Opening Ceremony are opening a pop-up shop in London’s Covent Garden, days before the Olympics are due to begin.
While it’s a more than apt moment to launch the brand into the UK, we’re simply happy to have the store on this side of the pond. Having already produced collections lusted after by fashionistas the world over, the store is set to boast wares by Proenza Schouler, Chloe Sevigny and Pamela Love, as well of course as Kenzo, whom Opening Ceremony recently took over design duties for. For those keeping it strictly sporty during that month, they’ll also be Adidas X Opening Ceremony.
Hot on the heels of the pop-up store will come a permanent space opening in Autumn, but right now, the buzz building up for July just got louder.
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