KENZO’s Spring/Summer 2019 collection is a colourful and divinely energetic assemblage, a futurist and optimistic vision. Co-creative directors HUMBERTO LEON and CAROL LIM wanted to take this a step further for the campaign and depict a true utopia. They tapped a hero of theirs, iconic photographer, filmmaker, and artist DAVID LACHAPELLE, to shoot the images.
Infinitely and uniquely qualified for the job, LaChapelle has made a career out of not so much depicting his subjects but rebirthing them and placing them into a fantasia of his own making. His images are instantly recognisable and inimitable. He has also spent much of the past 11 years in tropical heaven-on-earth: Maui, Hawaii.
Shot at his Los Angeles studio, LaChapelle conjured a surreal paradise, a ‘KENZOTOPIA’, for the KENZO Spring-Summer 2019 campaign, where streetscapes, urban apartments, and breathtaking outdoor scenes blurred into each other in a Technicolor euphoric reverie. Models are joined by fashion moonlighters such as dancers, musicians, students, and even a star-making cameo by Humberto’s mother, WENDY LEON.
The campaign is the perfect harmony and coalescence of the passions and ideals of Carol and Humberto and David, as all have devoted their careers to not only following their bliss but spreading it. The three gathered to discuss their project.