Under the hammer of Stéphane Aubert, auctioneer and associate director of Artcurial, it is the whole nomadic and chic universe of fashion icon Kenzo Takeda, founder of the Kenzo brand who died in October of the Covid-19 , which is dispersed this Tuesday, May 11 in Paris. His furniture, his paintings (most of which are self-portraits signed by his hand), objects and works of art make up nearly 600 pieces, in the midst of which lived this esthete, “The most Parisian of Japanese couturiers”, in his apartment in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, opposite the Hotel Lutétia, the last fifteen years of his life.
Flirting between the arts, eras and influences of East and West, Kenzo Takada married a Pleyel grand piano after Ruhlmann with a contemporary tweed sofa by designer Tristan Auer edited by the Maison Pouenat (the latter, esteemed 600 to 800 euros, went to 12,350 euros), and an octagonal tray in black lacquered wood sheathed in shagreen, signed by the Japanese Katsu Hamanaka (1895-1982). This coin estimated at 1,200 euros smashed the records of the morning, with a sale price of 42,900 euros.
Unfinished clothes
“Every wall, every corner of the sky and every passer-by in the city inspires me to imagine my collections”, said Kenzo Takada about Paris. On the fashion side, only his creations from 2005 to 2008 under the names of Gokan Kobo (the five senses in Japanese) then of Takada – the couturier who sold his clothing brand Kenzo to the giant LVMH in 1993 – are auctioned, only online , until Wednesday May 12.
The clothes in silky and colorful materials, and some of which are unfinished, are sometimes accompanied by sketches by the stylist, who had dared to dress the singer Julien Clerc in floral shirts for the musical. Hate, in 1967. “There will always remain something of Kenzo in us, his freedom to be and his joy of living inhabit us”, underlines Ruth Obadia, his collaborator for thirty-seven years who witnessed, with tears in her eyes, the dispersion of the goods of a lifetime between Japan and France.
Catalog available online at www.artcurial.com, in collaboration with Christie’s.