Kenzo Ready to Wear Fall Collection 2020

These are tough times for the travel industry. With the coronavirus outbreak severely curtailing air traffic, many people are opting to stay at home. Suddenly, even the trusty student ritual of backpacking across the planet is looking less alluring.

Not so for Felipe Oliveira Baptista, whose father was a pilot and who, as a result, has travelled in his DNA. His debut coed collection for Kenzo was all about wanderlust — though the concept of shelter came hand-in-hand.

Cloaks, capes, cowls and caps shielded his models from the bright sunlight raising temperatures inside the plastic tubular tent set up in the garden of the National Institute for Deaf Children. The venue felt like an apt metaphor for conflicting urges: wanting to be out in the world, yet protected from its dangers.

The designer conceived the collection like a dialogue between himself and founder Kenzo Takada, who revolutionized French fashion in the early Seventies with his colourful, unrestrictive clothes and came to show his support.

Baptista channelled that spirit with flowing capes printed with collages of tiger paintings by Portuguese artist Júlio Pomar, or prints drawn from the Kenzo archives: roses or horses painted into soft, camouflage-like motifs. An army green, full-body cocoon, shaped with drawstrings, swathed the body like a sleeping bag.