Japanese fashion designer Kenzo Takada, better known as Kenzo, died Sunday from COVID-19, his spokesman told several French media outlets.

Aged 81, Takada was at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a residential suburb on the western outskirts of the French capital, the spokesman said. Kenzo, the house he founded in the 1970s, is owned by LVMH , the world’s biggest luxury group.

Takada brought a “gust of color and fresh creativity” to Paris in the 1970s, fashion news website WWD.com said. “I was a fan of the brand in the Seventies when he started. I think he was a great designer,” WWD quoted Sidney Toledano, CEO of LVMH Fashion Group, as saying. “I’m very sad. He was a great guy.”