Scene setting: Carol Lim and Humberto Leon ushered in a street smart, savvy curatorial kudos to the Paris fashion season, arriving as co-creative directors at Kenzo in 2012. Earlier this month, it was announced that they were to leave the house to focus on their Opening Ceremony line. For their final Paris show, they bowed out with typical performative pop panache. Directors Lola Raban-Oliva and JR Etienne (who work under the moniker Partel Oliva) took over a stadium at the AccorHotels Arena, dressing the space in long curtains onto which were printed stretched-out suns from photographer Hiroshi Yamazaki’s ‘Heliography’ and ‘Horizon’ series. As the show began, they were speedily sucked into the ceiling, unveiling a choreographed dance performance and a live set from Solange Knowles.
Mood board: Their final collection looked to Japan’s ocean waters. The duo imagined groups of modern-day superheroes who dive into the strong currents to retrieve whatever treasures are strewn on the bottom of the seas. Groups of Japanese female freedivers known as the Ama – who have dived for over 2000 years to forage for seafood and pearls for their communities – were paid homage in digital woodblock prints on shirting and as jacquards on knits. Diving gear was riffed on in the rubberised outerwear in orange and violet and scuba sneakers, while Hawaïan shirts filled with prints of sea lilies or urchins.
Team work: The show opened with performers wearing high Japanese Zori platforms, rocking back and forth down the runway. Each donned a piece from the nascent Kenzo archives. The Guadeloupean choreographer Léo Lérus directed what he called an ‘imagined retrospective procession’ of looks from Lim and Leon’s tenure at the house. As they stalked the catwalk, Knowles performed a deconstructed, haunting version of the opening track of her When I Get Home album, accompanied by a brass band.
-
Must-visit cinemas with award-worthy designCreativity leaps the screen at these design-led cinemas, from Busan Cinema Centre’s record-flying roof to The Gem Cinema Jaipur’s art deco allure
-
The modernist home of musician Imogen Holst gets Grade II listingThe daughter of the composer Gustav Holst lived here from 1964 until her death, during which time the home served a locus for her own composition work, which included assisting Benjamin Britten
-
This fun and free-spirited photography exhibition offers a chromatic view on the world‘Chromotherapia’ at Villa Medici in Rome, explores how we view colour as a way of therapy, and how it has shaped photography over the last century (until 9 June 2025)
-
Palace unites with Rapha to celebrate inaugural Tour de France FemmesMarking the first time women will compete in the historic cycling race since the late 1980s, this new collaboration sees Palace Skateboards and Rapha create uniforms for both on and off the bike – including an ‘outlandish’ pair of Crocs
-
Paris Fashion Week A/W 2022: Chanel to Miu MiuIn this extended report, Wallpaper* updates you live from Paris Fashion Week A/W 2022 shows, with rolling coverage as runway events unfold
-
Scene-stealing runway sets from A/W 2022 menswear showsA Kubrickian space odyssey at Prada; a recreation of the Pont Alexandre III in Paris at Dior; and colourful, artist-created flags at Loewe: explore the best runway sets from the A/W 2022 menswear shows
-
Kenzo returns to Galerie Vivienne for Nigo’s A/W 2022 show debutFor his debut, A/W 2022 Kenzo show, the brand’s new creative director Nigo chose Paris’ Galerie Vivienne, the location of founder Kenzo Takada’s first boutique
-
Scene-stealing runway sets from S/S 2022 womenswear showsFrom giant roulette wheels to Olympic diving boards and multi-city synchronized extravaganzas – our pick of the best fashion show sets from S/S 2022 womenswear
-
Walk this way: navigating S/S 2021's Paris Fashion WeekHow the City of Lights looked to the sartorial realities of our much changed lifestyles
-
Louis Vuitton A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women's -
Chanel A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women’s
