A highly anticipated debut menswear collection by Carol Lim and Humberto Leon.
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The show was set in a stunning old railway building that was dressed with neon hoops through which the models walked. Outside bike-drawn carriages took audience members from the entrance to the forecourt where a Kenzo Starbucks truck served hot tea and doughnuts. We caught up with Carol Lim backstage directly after the show to discuss their vision of the Kenzo man:
Obviously the theme was travelling, the venue (the old railway headquarters) is also incredible but start us off with talking about the collection… It started with the fundamentals of a man’s wardrobe and just to be able to address things from suits, separates, t-shirts, sweatshirts. We really wanted to address fit and the idea of putting in functionality. So when you see the suits sometimes there’s classic fabrics but then there’s technical fabrics mixed in with little details like a pocket for your iphone, places for your headphones. Another inspiration was when the internet took off, a lot of young men stopped wanting to wear suits so where’s the inbetween? For us when you look at the collection, and the whole collection is a lot bigger than what you saw in the show, you see all the fundamentals.
Who are you dressing, is it quite a young guy? I don’t think it’s about age, it’s more about people who appreciate these details. We have three different fits but it’s about the fit and the use of the fabric that we choose.
Three different fits, what did you go for? We have a regular fit for our current customer who is really loyal, we addressed the finishing etcetera and then we went all the way down to an extra slim which is for someone who wants a fashionable suit but I think that the idea is that you can mix and match.
So are you guys living in Paris now? We’re back and forth, we’re between Paris and New York. I think a lot of our inspiration came from travelling and thinking, oh I wish I had this for this event or a pocket for that….
Tell us about the venue… Part of our brief to production was that we wanted it to fit in with our theme which was the modern commuter. We wanted to find somewhere new, really different but at the same time warm. When we saw the space we knew it was the right place.
Did you choose the music too? So we worked with our friends Vampire Week-end, they did all the music, they’re actually very much like our classic guy because they love suiting.
Text: Sarah Hay
Photography: Mitchell Sams
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