Kenzo Takada
© AFP Pierre VerdyPARIS (AFP) - Working under his new label "Gokan Kobo," or "workshop of the five senses," the 66-year old designer unveiled his new universe of tableware, home objects and furniture at the "Maison et Objet" trade show in Paris on Friday.
Takada will also present a small line of clothes "for casual activities and traveling, that are easy to wear," in a limited showing during the presentation of the Paris ready-to-wear collections in early October, the designer told AFP.
He announced his intention to open a store in Paris before the end of 2006 to show the entire Gokan Kobo collection.
"When I stopped working five years ago, I went on vacation, I rested, I traveled. And when I decided to work again, I told myself it would be in decoration" more than fashion, he said.
Viwe of Japanese designer Kenzo Takada's booth
© AFP Pierre VerdyIn launching his new business, Takada chose to create partnerships with established manufacturers that could handle the production of the Gokan Kobo line: Baccarat for crystal, for example, or Niderwiller and Manufacture Nationale de Sevres for porcelain.
He has also given a high-profile visibility to a handful of young artisans such as Shoko Koike, a young sculptor and vase-maker and the daughter of one of Takada's design teachers in Japan from the early 1960s.
But the end-result is unmistakably stamped with the coherence and originality that catapulted Takada to stardom as a clothing designer in the 1970s.
"What I have done here is not design so much as cross breeding," said Takada with typical modesty, pointing to a chair in the mid-19th century style of Napolean III covered in tissue taken from the sash of a traditional Japanese kimono gown.
"But the chairs are still very French," Takada added in accented French, smiling broadly.
Takada emigrated to France in 1965 and has been based in Paris ever since, but travels frequently to Japan -- "two or three times a year," he said.
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