KENZO

THE beauty of Kenzo under Carol Lim and Humberto Leon's leadership is that it has become the centre of cool. It might be a dirty word to Alber Elbaz but it's the driving force and secret ingredient for this brand which has the clever ability to tap into and feed the current zeitgeists, take a sweeping scan of the fashion landscape and bring its essentials back to the masses in an edgier and cooler way. Take their cult sweatshirts for example - now you can't move for a sweatshirt or derivative of its shape taking a turn down the catwalk.

For autumn/winter 2013-14 these have been recast in molten gold with black sleeves - and a tweet to detail as much was met with quite the enthusiastic response. And that's what this pair is so good at doing - fashion enthusiasm.

Today's collection was super comprehensive and super young in style, but that's the audience they're targeting because that's how the brand has been turned around and made fresh and new.

The pair looked to the ancient Asian temples of India, Nepal and China combined with multicoloured grosgrain ribbons they found at Kenzo Takada's former haberdashery to conjure up a collection that was full of easy, wearable and shop-able separates: raglan-sleeved bomber jackets and coats with wide sleeves and wrap fastenings (the epitome of their kind of "cool"); foil-printed slim-fit trousers; brick-textured coats in glossy red and black; more cocoon shapes; kimono-wrap dresses or skirts patched together from metallic and printed textiles. Everyday items, they came rendered in gold where possible to give a night time edge and added sense of luxe.

The shoes were particularly great: peep-toe or regular boots in ruby red or gold with a chunky and slightly off-centre heel so that they were bestowed with that awkward sense of cool (sorry Alber).

In two short years, Kenzo has been reborn for a new generation and created a new identity all its own.