Kenzo's love for fashion developed at an early age, particularly through reading his sisters' magazines. He shortly attended Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, where he felt bored and eventually withdrew, against the will of his family. In 1958, he joined a fashion school, Tokyo's Bunka Fashion College, which had then just opened its doors to male students.
After earning his diploma, he settled in Paris in 1964. He was trying to gain a place in the fashion environment; attending shows, making contacts with the media and selling sketches.