Between 22 March and 7 April, Kenzo is bringing pop-up events to Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen at the same time. Kenzo has covered the walls and windows near its stores in the three cities with artistic director Nigo’s hand-drawn boke flower (also called Japanese quince), as well as providing exclusive coffee and stickers with the boke floral pattern at weekends only.
Coinciding with the launch of the pop-ups, the brand teamed up with actor Ao Ruipeng and singer-actress Snow Kong Xueer to model the new SS24 collection and recreate Nigo’s boke doodles in a promotional video. On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “Kenzo pens flowers” (#KENZO妙笔生花#) gained 5.98 million views.
Kenzo was founded in 1970 by the late Japanese designer Kenzo Takada (1939-2020). It enjoyed huge popularity in the 2010s under co-creative directors Humberto Leon and Carol Lim before they left in 2019. Nigo took over the brand as artistic director in September 2021 and since the very early days, he adopted the Japanese boke flower as a symbol for the limited edition drops for the brand.
Ever since his first collection with French luxury fashion house Kenzo, street fashion legend Nigo has used the boke flower as an emblem. It has now become an iconic feature of the brand under his stewardship. Floral motifs frequently appear with Kenzo designs since the days of founder Takada.
Nigo’s move is regarded as a homage and continuation of Takada’s legacy, as the flower famously blossoms in February and symbolises pioneering and leadership in Japanese culture. This time Nigo deconstructs and subverts the now-iconic boke image with his hand-drawn version of it, bringing a freshness and playful twist to it. With the fun and immersive check-in (打卡) spots, the new campaign brings a springy feeling to the street and invites visitors to participate, enjoy the view and the creativity.
