PARIS — Kenzo Takada’s home here — with its indoor pool, a decor blending East and West and lush Zen gardens — is known as one of the French capital’s most stylish abodes.
Now the designer, who has been making a comeback recently via his nascent Gokan Kobo brand, wants to display his savoir faire in a range of home accessories, from cutlery and china to linens and chairs.
Takada, who recently introduced a line of swimsuits and scarves licensed to Italy’s Ratti, previewed his new home accessories at the Maison et Objet trade show here last week.
“I was so nervous as we were setting up the stand,” said Takada, svelte and tanned in a Dior Homme suit. “It was worse than preparing for a fashion show.”
The comparison is apt, as Takada said he approached the home collection with the eye of a fashion designer, looking for harmony in color while creating alluring forms.
“It is based on bringing an unexpected twist to more classical pieces,” he said, pointing to his “Napoleon III” chair covered with kimono fabric and a silk bedspread embroidered with elephants, his lucky animal.
Takada said he favors both antique and contemporary elements in his own decorative schemes, and he praises, above all, the eclecticism achieved by mixing cultures and styles.
That comes out in his homewares range: paisley boxes and trays, floral-motif porcelain and bright yellow and orange linens. “People want a personal touch in their home,” he said.
Pieces will be produced under license, including Baccarat for crystal, D. Porthault for linens and Manufacture Nationale de Sevres for fine porcelain. Retail prices range from 15 euros, or $18.72 at current exchange, for a porcelain box to 3,000 euros, or $3,744, for an embroidered bedspread.
Takada launched the Gokan Kobo brand — meaning “atelier of the five senses” in Japanese — last year after a short-lived retirement from the Kenzo house he founded, which is now owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
Now that he’s back, though, Takada said his approach to creation has changed. He is more interested in “quality” and perennial style than the vagaries of fashion.
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To wit: In October he will show select buyers his first women’s ready-to-wear line under the Gokan Kobo label. “It will be about clothing that a woman can wear season after season,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kenzo said he has “put on hold” plans to open his first Gokan Kobo shop here in the former Kugel antiques gallery on the Rue Saint-Honoré.
But his energy remains unbridled. “I will open a store, soon. My dream is to even open a restaurant.”