Felipe Oliveira Baptista was appointed creative director of Kenzo last July, and today marked his first outing for the French house. The designer’s résumé runs the gamut of couture and sportswear; he was most recently at the helm of Lacoste.
Speaking before the show in Paris, Baptista pointed to the brand’s nomadic spirit as a guiding principle for his debut. His initial conversations with founder Kenzo Takada led him to explore references that were both archival and personal.
The show opened on a relatively somber note with an oversized tailored ensemble that was black from head to toe. In keeping with the current trend for face-obscuring hats and head coverings, there was an array of bonnets, headscarves, and hoods. The Portuguese designer’s most dramatic take on the look was inspired by his upbringing on the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, where the traditional hooded garb has been passed down from mother to daughter for generations.
Baptista has a natural affinity for leather, and he reworked several classic outerwear shapes with a more conceptual line, including an ’80s-style shearling. Save for tonal embroideries of Kenzo’s distinctive tiger-head logo, the slate was swept clean of any branding. There was a more deliberate nod to the Kenzo tiger with a collage of painterly feline prints made in collaboration with the estate of the celebrated midcentury Portuguese artist Julio Pomar that appeared on snap-button tunics and felted sweaters.
The most striking motifs in the lineup were pulled from the brand’s extensive catalog of floral and camouflage prints. The abstract roses that showed up on sweeping parachute midi dresses and ponchos added a sense of vibrancy to the collection. As he begins to build out a new vision for Kenzo, Baptista would be wise to mine that optimistic mood further.
