LVMH has officially announced that NIGO, fashion designer, DJ, producer and streetwear guru – founder of HUMAN MADE and A Bathing Ape – is the new Artistic Director of KENZO. 

Tomoaki Nagao, this is NIGO’s real name, will be the first Japanese to head the French fashion house since the brand’s founder Kenzo Takada resigned in 1999.

Speaking of this new role, NIGO stated that this will be “greatest challenge of 30-year career”, while the CEO of the LVMH fashion group, Sidney Toledano welcomed the new Artistic Director with these words: “The arrival of an extremely talented Japanese designer will allow us to write a new page in the history of the House that Takada Kenzo founded. I am convinced that the creativity and innovation of Nigo, as well as his attachment to the history of the House, will fully express all the potential of KENZO”.

NIGO’s work as KENZO’s Artistic Director will actually begin on September 20.