For Uncertain Times, Some Clothes That Genuinely Shock

There’s always this moment toward the end of the European fashion week marathon when you’re dragging, when your eyes go bleary staring at yet another black jacket you’ll forget about the instant you stand up.

It’s at precisely this moment that you need a jolt — clothes that startle, that defy expectations.

That jolt arrived on Friday evening from a most unexpected place: Kenzo.

The label has been going through a muddled few years under its creative director, Nigo. The collections have felt too laden with merch, too bloated with haphazard ideas. I had expected more of the same walking into Le Palais de Chaillot late Friday.

What I got instead was Kenzo with the fat shaved off. The show’s first act was its strongest: a rotation of overcoats, spongy blazers and cardigans in brushed-out mohair. In soft grays, pinks, yellows and electric blues, they were like sleeved Muppets. Charming! It was a palate cleanser, while maintaining the playful verve of its founder, Kenzo Takada.

Also at Kenzo, a jolting display of primary colors and fuzzed-out textures.Credit…Photographs via Kenzo

Other heart-rate accelerators in the collection included an overcoat in a painterly striped pattern that crisscrossed at the edges, like the leaves of a rubber plant, and some shearling shorts. Impractical, yes, but still a cool idea.