Humberto Leon and Carol Lim have made the jungle—and Kenzo's Jungle Jap—the launch pad for their reboot of the brand. "We decided to take it back to the beginnings of Kenzo," Leon explained at his Paris studio. He and Lim had recently come back from a trip through the real-life jungles for inspiration. The ones they visited were East Asian, and what they saw there both literally and figuratively infused their Resort offering. The leopard print they used is derived from the markings of a specific beast: the clouded leopard, native only to East Asia. Their knit stitch was inspired by basket weaving seen in situ.
Shapes, too, were inspired by their travels. A cotton/raffia parka, which zips off into an abbreviated version, looked ready for the wild. So did cotton stopper-pull shorts. Stoppers appeared on many different pieces, from dresses to wide-legged pants, offering plays with volume from the dramatic to the cinched. Those inflated shapes made for a more overtly fashion-conscious range than the duo has offered to date. With risk comes reward, though some pieces may find them out on a limb. Speaking of, their first structured bag, the No. 18 (named for their studio address on Rue Vivienne), debuts here, complete with an iPad case inside. But where to charge such a contraption in the jungle?
