Japanese Fashion designer Kenzo Takada dies of Covid-19

Japanese fashion designer Kenzo Takada passed away from Covid-19 complications on Sunday in Paris at the age of 81.

“Kenzo Takada passed away on Sunday, October 4, 2020, at the American Hospital of Neuilly-sur-Seine from the Covid-19 “, said his spokesperson in a press release.

The first Japanese stylist who established himself in Paris, where he built his entire career and made his first name famous, passed away in the same city while Paris Fashion Week is being held. 

Kenzo Takada retired from the fashion world in 1999, six years after selling his eponymous fashion brand to luxury conglomerate LVMH.

His death comes 50 years after he launched his first collection in Paris and created the world-renowned Kenzo brand.

LVMH’s Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault said in a statement on Kenzo’s death said that he “infused into fashion a tone of poetic lightness and sweet freedom which inspired many designers after him”.

Ralph Toledano, chairman of France’s fashion federation, credited Takada over his contributions as  writing “a new page in fashion, at the confluence of the East and the West”.