A Japanese pioneer in Paris

WEARING his signature sunglasses, framing a barely lined face and a debonair streak of white in his hair, Kenzo Takada is the consummate Parisian gent. For the less well-versed in fashion history, it is almost impossible to imagine the blazer-wearing, soft-spoken septuagenarian as the same man who once sent a model on a white horse down the runway, or mixed Peruvian traditional costume with pret-a-porter.

It's only when he reveals that he was up till 2am the night before during a gala by the Asian Couture Federation, for which he was in town, that it's clear that here is someone who…