Famed Paris-based Japanese fashion designer Kenzo Takada died on Sunday of COVID-19 complications, according to a spokesperson from his most recent luxury brand, K-3, launched in January this year. Takada, who founded his eponymous brand Kenzo in the 1970s, was the first Japanese designer to break onto the Paris fashion scene. He sold Kenzo to the global luxury group LVMH in 1993. Takada passed away at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, at the age of 81. “Kenzo Takada was incredibly creative; with a stroke of genius, he imagined a new artistic and colourful story combining East and West—his native Japan and his life in Paris,” said Jonathan Bouchet Manheim, K-3’s chief executive.