Story & heritage

The tiger has been a KENZO emblem since the 1980s, but it became the house's defining graphic in 2012, when co-creative directors Humberto Leon and Carol Lim unveiled a knitted sweater with a roaring tiger's head and the words 'Kenzo Paris' for the Fall 2012 collection. Leon wanted a sweatshirt version to wear himself.

The idea met resistance — LVMH and the atelier reportedly told the pair, 'We don't have a sweatshirt category.' Made anyway, the tiger sweatshirts sold out within hours at the Paris store and turned a quiet Parisian label into one of the most-photographed names of the decade, worn by Beyoncé, Rihanna, Jay-Z and a generation of fashion bloggers.

Under Nigo, artistic director since 2021, the motif continues as the 'Wild Tiger' — a row of repeated tiger heads ringing the KENZO name beneath a '1970 Paris' arc that nods to the house's founding year.

Materials & craft

The sweatshirt is cut from heavyweight cotton with a ribbed crew neck, cuffs and hem, and the small woven KENZO Paris tab at the collar. The tiger artwork is rendered in dense, multi-colour embroidery rather than print — a raised, tactile patch of yellow, black and red stitching that gives the graphic its depth and is the reason the original sweater read as luxury rather than streetwear.

How to choose & style

The black ground is the most versatile and the one that reads closest to the 2012 original; it sits as easily under a blazer as it does with denim or tailored trousers. The sweatshirt is the loudest single piece in the KENZO wardrobe, so it tends to work best as the statement, with everything else kept plain — the way it has been styled since the day it sold out.