Introduction
Felipe Oliveira Baptista is a Portuguese fashion designer born in the Azores and trained at Kingston University in London. After graduating in 1997, he worked for Max Mara, Christophe Lemaire and Cerruti. He won the Grand Prix at the Hyères festival in 2002 and founded an eponymous label with Séverine Oliveira Baptista, presenting work across couture and ready-to-wear before closing the line in 2014.
As creative director of Lacoste from 2010 to 2018, Oliveira Baptista repositioned tennis clothing through technical construction, streetwear and a luxury runway context. The role brought performance fabric, outerwear and collaboration into sustained contact with the codes of an established sports brand.
Oliveira Baptista became Kenzo's creative director on 1 July 2019 and presented three main seasonal collections, ending with a digital Autumn/Winter 2021–22 film before his departure took effect in June 2021. His practice also includes photography, drawing, printmaking and installation, fields he returned to publicly after leaving the house.
Design ethos
Oliveira Baptista works through protection, modularity and movement. Couture training appears in the control of volume and finish, while technical fabric, adjustable closures and sports construction allow garments to open, fold, layer and travel with the body.
At Lacoste he placed street-informed outerwear and performance clothing inside a broader luxury wardrobe. His Kenzo collections pushed the same concerns into capes, cocoon shapes, veils, hoods and graphic floral or animal imagery; the pandemic sharpened an existing interest in shelter rather than creating it.
Photography and installation reveal a parallel method based on framing, sequence and atmosphere. The final Kenzo film at the Cirque d'Hiver joined archive footage, choreography and atelier participation, treating moving image as part of the collection's construction and not merely its documentation.
Disclaimer
Career history
2021
Baptista's Fall 2021 collection became the closing creative statement of his short Kenzo tenure.
2021
Kenzo announced on 26 April 2021 that Felipe Oliveira Baptista would leave the house when his contract ended on 30 June. His final Autumn/Winter 2021–22 film had been released one month earlier, closing the design tenure before the employment term formally expired.
2020
Kenzo partnered with WWF in 2020 around a tiger-themed capsule and conservation support. The project connected one of the house's most commercially recognisable motifs to the endangered animal itself, reframing graphic identity through an environmental commitment.
2020
Felipe Oliveira Baptista's first Kenzo collection marked the house's first major runway statement after the Leon-Lim era.
2019
Felipe Oliveira Baptista took up the role of Kenzo creative director on 1 July 2019. His technical and sportswear experience redirected the house towards modular clothing, protection and movement across a compact three-collection tenure.
2010
Oliveira Baptista served as Lacoste creative director from 2010 to 2018. He placed technical sportswear, street-informed outerwear and collaborations inside a luxury runway wardrobe while retaining the brand's tennis inheritance.
2003
Felipe and Séverine Oliveira Baptista founded the designer's eponymous label in 2003 after his Hyères award. The house presented couture and ready-to-wear in Paris until the line was closed in 2014 as his Lacoste responsibilities expanded.
You’re in
When the archive opens, you’ll be among the first to know.
That’s all.
