The news of the French-Japanese designer’s death, reportedly from COVID-19, sent the fashion world into mourning.

“It is with immense sadness that KENZO has learned of the passing of our founder,” the fashion house said in a statement. “For half a century, Mr. Takada has been an emblematic personality in the fashion industry — always infusing creativity and color into the world.”

Though Takada had been retired from his house since 1999 to pursue a career in art, Kenzo remains one of the most respected fixtures of high Paris fashion. Since 1993, the brand Kenzo has been owned owned by the French luxury goods company LVMH. The current designer and artistic director, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, unveiled Kenzo’s spring-summer 2020 to fashion editors on Wednesday.

“His amazing energy, kindness, talent and smile were contagious,” Oliveira Baptista said. “His kindred spirit will live forever.”

Kenzo’s styles used bold color, clashing prints and were inspired by travels all over the world.

The revamped house of the late, great couturier Elsa Schiaparelli has been on a creative rollercoaster since launching some years ago as couture, going through several creative directors in a short time, and now presenting ready-to-wear. The latest designer Daniel Roseberry has, on the whole, been given a warm reception. And this should continue with Sunday’s fare — the third ready-to-wear collection for the house — in which the Texan designer said he wanted to blur the lines between the two traditions of making clothes.