Fashion designer Kenzo dies of coronavirus

Japanese-French fashion designer Kenzo Takada has died of infection with the emerging coronavirus, AFP reported on Sunday, quoting a spokesman for the designer.

The spokesman said that the 81-year-old Takada, who changed his first name into a world-famous brand, died "yesterday, Sunday, October 4, at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine" after being infected with the Coronavirus.

"Today, his optimism, enthusiasm for life and generosity remain a pillar of our house ... we will miss him a lot and we will always remember him," the Kenzo fashion house wrote on Twitter.

The designer was known not only for his fashion brands, but also for his collection of perfumes and skin care products.

Kenzo was born in Japan on February 27, 1939, but has spent nearly all of his career in France.

Kenzo sold his trademark in 1993 to the French luxury goods company LVMH.

And in 1999 Kenzo completely retired from the fashion industry.

Ten years later, he also auctioned off his large art collection.

Kenzo, a graduate of the Tokyo-based Bunka College of Fashion, went to France in the mid-1960s when he was twenty-five, arrived by boat in Marseille and had originally intended to stay for a short period but settled there and became the first Japanese designer to achieve great success in France.

He designed his first large collection in 1970 and founded the Kenzo brand in 1976. In 1983 a line of men's fashion followed, and in 1988 he launched the famous Kenzo perfume.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted that the city was "mourning one of its sons".

She said Kenzo gave space to color and light in fashion.

Japanese fashion designer Junko Koshino said she and Takada have been close friends for six decades, since she was 19.

"He was my best friend and he was also a family member," she told Kyodo News.

"We have been competitors, and we have had a friendly competition, since we were young. We also encouraged each other," Koshino said of her boyfriend, who was also from western Japan.

The last time Koshino saw Takada was in February, when she visited him in Paris.

She later called him to take care of himself amid the spread of the Corona virus.

And she said, "When I told him not to come out, he answered, 'Okay.

"I will not do". 

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