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Kenzo appoints Opening Ceremony founders

By FashionUnited

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Fashion

Paris-based Luxury brand Kenzo is to invigorate its image with the appointment of New York's coolest boutique designers, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim from Opening Ceremony. While the Opening Ceremony brand has grown from a small,

cult boutique in Lower Manhattan, to a fully-fledged global brand with its own collections, stores, and more importantly, with its fingers on the pulse.

Luxury conglomerate LVMH owns the Kenzo brand, and is keen to reposition it, starting with the Spring 2012 collection. Leon and Lim will succeed Italian designer Antonio Marras who had been creative director since 2004.

Pierre-Yves Roussel, chairman and chief executive of LVMH’s fashion division, which includes Céline, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Loewe and Emilio Pucci said: “What we need now is something which has more energy, which is looking forward in terms of addressing a new generation.” Roussel added he was struck by the pair’s “360 degree vision of the fashion industry”.

Roussel plans to increase Kenzo’s top-line growth in markets such as China, and to re-enter the US market, from which Kenzo withdrew in 2003.

Leon and Lim will continue to head up the US chain they founded in 2002. Opening Ceremony has two stores in New York, one in Los Angeles, one in Tokyo and an online store. There are also Opening Ceremony shops in Lane Crawford department stores in Beijing and Hong Kong, and the company wholesales its private-label collection to about 300 doors.

Image: Kenzo AW11
KENZO
Opening Ceremony