Pharrell Williams arrived at tonight’s show wearing a full Kenzo look by his dear friend and close collaborator Nigo—accessorized with a fresh-from-the-oven (and runway) yellow duffle from his own debut collection. It was a full circle moment. Those aware of the lore will know that one of Williams’s first formal forays into fashion way back when came by Nigo’s hand when they co-founded Billionaire Boys Club together back in 2003.
Still, despite Nigo’s clear knack for co-creating, up until tonight the only collaboration the designer had explored during his tenure at Kenzo was with the house’s founder himself—well, with his archive. Contrary to popular belief, Nigo is, he said, actually “quite opposed to collaborations in fashion.” He explained that, after taking the top job at Kenzo, he particularly wanted to avoid one from the start in order to establish his tenure. But it’s difficult not to cave to expectations, and so tonight his spring 2024 men’s and women’s collections featured the work of his close friend, the Japanese graphic artist Verdy (who was also just announced as Blackpink’s latest artistic director).
Now was the right time to play that card. As Nigo looks to put a forceful signature on Kenzo (and perhaps add more momentum, judging by the amount of celebrities at this show and its very Instagrammable location at the Passerelle Debilly at the foot of the Eiffel Tower), it was only apt to go all out. Plus, after some time at the helm of Kenzo, he now has the space to do that.
One thing that has captured Nigo’s interest of late is the fact that city pop, the Japanese pop music movement that emerged in the ’70s and peaked in the ’80s, recently regained mainstream global popularity. This tension between the authentically Japanese and its Western reinterpretations is something that Nigo deftly navigates in his work. This was put on display in this collection as he revisited the clothes from the time when he first experienced the music in the context of a now global brand.
In fact, to aptly recontextualize his inspiration, Nigo explored both his own archive and the Kenzo one from the time when city pop first emerged and looked at how those very same items and styles have been reinterpreted since. Where this translated best was in the tailoring—which remains his most convincing effort at Kenzo—as he mixed elements of Japanese tailoring with details and proportions from the time. A highlight was a pair of wide-pleated dress shorts hybridized with a hakama, and a kimono-like double breasted pinstripe jacket.
Verdy contributed with a reimagined “Kenzo Paris” logo, which was placed on the back of jackets and cleverly used as a binding tape on some tailoring. Elsewhere, a rose print reinterpreted from the Kenzo archive and placed over pastel summer fabrics offered lightness to the lineup. Denim remains a Nigo strong suit, as does his cool and unbothered—while still intentional—menswear. Still, though this collection offered a clearer point of view in the women’s space—with decisively sexy semi-sheer knits and short shifts—the direction still seems unresolved.
It’s hard to not see the parallel between Nigo’s show tonight and Williams’s early this week. While the bridge setting may be a simple coincidence, the magnitude is not. We’ve entered a new era of fashion as entertainment, where editors and writers are taking as many notes about the famous names in attendance as we are about the clothes. But still, among all the noise, Nigo continues to do nothing other than his own thing. To his credit, the many online trends spreading over the runways this season (i.e. quiet luxury) were nowhere to be found on his runway. He’s four seasons in, and judging by this outing, Nigo’s all warmed up.
