Hospitality Design - August 2017 - 75

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kenzo takada
By Matt Dougherty
Photography courtesy of Roche Bobois

SECOND ACT
A fashion legend crosses over

A number of fashion designers have made
the shift to hospitality throughout their
careers, but none with a legacy quite like
Kenzo Takada's. Breaking boundaries for
over half a century, Takada was among the
first men in Japan to study fashion, attending
Tokyo's Bunka Fashion College (originally
only open to women) in 1958, much to his
father's dismay. "It was not well seen for men
to study fashion," he says. However, Takada

persevered. At the age of 25, he made the
journey via boat to Paris with the hopes of
making a career in fashion. A few short
years later in 1970, that dream came true
when he opened his Jungle Jap boutique,
where his bold prints and designs attracted
the attention of many, including Vogue. That
would soon evolve into a men's collection,
a line of fragrances, and eventually, his
acclaimed namesake fashion house. So
successful, in fact, that in the early '90s he
sold his company to LVMH and announced
his retirement in 1999. "I'm very lucky," he
says. "I began at a good time."
Now at the age of 78, the visionary has
reemerged into the design world, this time
setting his sights on products, a concept
brought to life through a partnership with
French furniture company Roche Bobois.
"I'm very demanding [in] doing certain
things," Takada says, noting that the
company has the resources to make the
impossible possible. "They always find a
solution," he explains, whether its applying
the difficult jacquard, "which is very
tough to work with" or making his eclectic
patterns pop. In their collaboration, Takada
has reinterpreted Roche Bobois' classic
Mah Jong sofa with his Nogaku collection
of fabrics, as well as worked with Italian
craftsmen to create a line of ceramics, all

of which fuse a Japanese touch with a
contemporary aesthetic.
Inspired by the Noh theater kimonos,
the sofa is offered in three color schemes
to represent different times of day: light
tones populate the morning (Asa); vibrant
colors bring out the midday (Hiru); and cool
blues cap things off for the evening (Yoru).
While the application of so many colors and
patterns was difficult, Takada says arranging
the "mixture of color and blending elements
[to] match each other" was "a very fun task."
Indeed, the unique combination of colors
and patterns should be familiar to those
who've followed his career in fashion. "I'm
not too minimalist," he jokes. "I really like to
focus on mixing things-mixing elements-
from contemporary to ancient, but they have
to match each other. It needs to be a good
feeling."
As for the leap from industry to
industry, Takada says he always works with
"something that has a link with fashion"
though he doesn't expect to return to his
roots anytime soon. "I used to love fashion,
but you need to always be on top, and it's
nonstop," he points out. Product design, on
the other hand, "is something I like today
because it's more eternal work." hd
roche-b ob oi s.com

1. Takada reinterpreted
Roche Bobois' classic
Mah Jong sofa, shown
here in his vibrant
Hiru pattern, meant to
represent midday tones.

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