Fashion is for fun at Kenzo in Paris

PARIS - Hands on hips, the US model Karlie Kloss glided down an elevator, shaking her mini-skirt to a punchy soundtrack, at the start of Kenzo's autumn-winter runway show on Sunday, day five of Paris Fashion Week.

Kenzo - AW 2012/13 - Photo: Pixel Formula

Showcased inside a 1960s Paris university, its walls coloured orange, pink and yellow, the latest look by Kenzo's design duo, the New Yorkers Carol Lim and Humberto Leon brightened up a wet, blustery day in the French capital.

Models slid down the elevators criss-crossing the interior courtyard, four-storeys high, walking round its corridors in patterned trenches, neon stiletto heels, animal-print sweaters or wool coats with colourful knit sleeves.

The design duo explained they used home decoration as the starting point for prints on raincoats and jackets, suggestive of a country interior like a grapevine motif set against black or white.

"We wanted this girl to know who she was," Lim told reporters of the bold palette of blues, reds, bright greens or magenta, after greeting a long line of well-wishers including the hip-hop icon Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs.