New York kids bring Kenzo new look

PARIS, Oct 2, 2011 - Kenzo's new design team, the founders of the New York fashion complex Opening Ceremony, unveiled a sporty spring-summer look built on bold primary colours and fisherman's net prints in Paris on Sunday.

Kenzo - SS 2012 / Photo: Pixel Formula

After launching fashion store-cum-art-gallery spaces in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim are making their fashion debut at Kenzo, taking over from Antonio Marras at the LVMH-owned label.

The duo hosted a Fashion Week party at Kenzo's historic atelier near the old Paris stock exchange, with mini runway shows at half-hour intervals to showcase a look that aimed for "ease and youthful sophistication."

Pant suits in bold red, blue or fishing net-patterned white, long-visored baseball caps in black or white, and a roll-call of trench coats and reworked trench-style jackets combined for a casual look with strong 1950s accents.

Giant bouffant black culotte pants were paired with a clingy yellow sleeveless knit, while a primary blue boilersuit in shimmering silk drew a round of applause.

Heels were high, chunky and metallic-shiny, with sometimes a big coloured bow wrapped at the ankle, or little foot-warmer.

Lim and Leon said they drew for inspiration on the primary colours of US painter Ellsworth Kelly, who lived in Paris in the 1950s, for a look that fused "American style and street wear with an effortless Parisian spirit."

The coastal motifs in the collection -- with knotted fishing nets, birds and seashells -- evoked classic French silk scarf patterns, and little kerchiefs were also knotted over the models' hair, or wrapped around their caps.

But mostly the mood was American, young and bold as the models stepped out to a remix of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" -- backed by live drummer and cellist.