In a recent interview with AnOther, Kenzo creative directors Humberto Leon and Carol Lim discussed working with photographer Jean-Paul Goude and his connection to the brand through Grace Jones. Many know Goude as a photographer, graphic designer, and illustrator, but few know that he was friends with Kenzo Takada and witnessed the early history of the company so closely.
"We’ve always been huge fans of Jean-Paul Goude’s work. Really, when we took on the Kenzo job, we said that Jean-Paul Goude needs to be in the mix. Because to us, he’s such a part of that time period. Jean-Paul Goude and Kenzo were friends and were in the same circle, but they never technically worked together. But Goude was married to Grace Jones and Grace was a muse to Kenzo."
"...We decided, 'How incredible would it be to make that one thing that was supposed to happen 30 years ago happen?' Jean-Paul looked at our collection and said, 'Your collection is about youthfulness and modernity and also something that is so celebratory that was lost in the last 10 years.' So he wanted to celebrate the moment with us. He saw we had introduced this reversible element in the collection and he wanted to do a reversible ad campaign."
[Another]
