Humberto Leon and Carol Lim have known since joining Kenzo in 2011 that the runway can also be a stage—whether for entertainment or awareness. For their combined men’s and women’s shows tonight, they brought their backstage out into the open, with hair and makeup, wardrobe, and even the food station fully operational within the center of the event space. The behind-the-scenes activity—a play on transparency, to some degree—was lively, no question; but more important, it was cost effective. In lieu of spending money on a splashy set, the duo chose two organizations—Earth Guardians and Ideas for Us—that Kenzo will support through different, ongoing initiatives. The point, said Lim, was not to position themselves as fashion’s do-gooders: “Let’s start the dialogue and if people learn about ideas through us, that’s great.”
Some will surely be learning about arctic surfing for the first time. The oxymoronic extreme sport prompted the designers to consider cold-weather clothes through a balmy filter. The fact that one of the digital prints features a lava pool amid icebergs suggests how far their imagination ran. But really, as Leon and Lim sent out the men’s collection in full, followed by the women’s, the progression of throwback flight suits, aurora borealis dip-dyed and printed knits, polar-explorer signaling, and Hawaiian floral jacquards suggested high-definition self-expression. As they appeared in the show, the graphic mixing and layering seemed decisively bold—destined to be worn by people who’ve determined that neutrals are too passive in today’s noisy world. If this has always been the Kenzo raison d’être, Leon and Lim convincingly pushed beyond activewear into suited-up looks that revised how we would have expected the future to appear a few decades ago, i.e., the plaid double jackets and waist-cinched dresses. Certainly, the “geo-tiger” stripe, a fun wink to geotagging, is a creation of our time.
But buried amid all this forecasting were reminders of the past; the designers pointed out how the embroidered trim trailing from a sheer dress (incidentally layered over their Earth Guardians turtleneck) was a technique unearthed from the atelier. Having passed by the Women’s March in Paris the previous day, they were buoyed to see how people gathered on the public stage. “We have work to do over the next four years,” said Lim, as if already brainstorming their next creative translation of the issues that matter most.
