Overfishing off the coast of their native California was Humberto Leon and Carol Lim's frame of reference for Spring. For their Pre-Fall collection for Kenzo, they shifted their attentions a few degrees of latitude north. The American Northwest was their starting point, they explained after a presentation held at one of the offbeat locations they have a knack for unearthing, the General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen in Midtown. One thing you can definitely say about Leon and Lim: They're on their own trip.
This season, their taste for the off-kilter produced a print of motel corridors with doors to nowhere, and another of orderly crisscrossing fluorescent lights that occasionally wobbled off their axis. Good-looking brushed plaid skirts wrapped asymmetrically around the waist with hems that were different lengths on either side, quite literally askew. As for the sweaters that read "Fire"? Our first thought was Twin Peaks. (The soundtrack was Roy Orbison's "In Dreams," which was used to memorable effect in another David Lynch opus, Blue Velvet.) "We wanted a word that had a duality," Lim said. "Fire is a necessity, but there's also the fear of fire and its destructive power."
Their Northwest reference point cued some strong outerwear, the best of which was a black checked lumberjack's jacket finished off with a sapphire blue fur collar. Also worth a callout: wood-grain pumps suggestive of car interiors—with that lumberjack's jacket, they looked especially twisted. A kick all around.
