Twenty Years of Kai Zen Models, Celebrated on a Lausanne Runway
On 23 September 2026, Kai Zen Models celebrated its twentieth anniversary with a runway show at the D! Club in Lausanne, devoted to local designers and boutiques. The trailer “Kai Zen Models Generation” keeps the night.
Kai Zen Models marked twenty years with the Kaizen Fashion Show at Lausanne’s D! Club: local designers, an inclusive casting and a cinematic trailer to watch.
A Night at the D! Club
On the evening of 23 September 2026, the screens above the stage of the D! Club on Place des Pionnières (formerly Place Centrale) in Lausanne carried the name KAI ZEN in oversized letters.
Backstage, models adjusted hats, coats and scarves in the red glow of the corridors; out front, guests gathered around the runway, waiting for the first walk. The occasion was the Kaizen Fashion Show, staged to mark the twentieth anniversary of Kai Zen Models, the Lausanne agency.
The evening was organised by Kai Zen Models together with the D! Club, and it was built around a clear idea: to put local designers and boutiques on the runway. Inclusivity and diversity were among the evening’s stated accents, and the show also carried an eco-responsible commitment.
Le Club de l’élégance is the production and distribution partner of the trailer that now preserves the night, Kai Zen Models Generation, directed by Michael Bouvard.
Contents
- A Night at the D! Club
- How Did Kai Zen Models Reach Its Twentieth Year?
- Who Are the Partners Thanked in the Trailer?
- What Turned the D! Club Into a Fashion Stage?
- How Does an Agency Mark Twenty Years?
- Local Creation Takes the Runway
- What Remains of the Evening?
- Fashion as a Shared Celebration
- Frequently Asked Questions
How Did Kai Zen Models Reach Its Twentieth Year?
An Agency Founded by a Model
Kai Zen Models was founded in 2006 by Maria Opuni, herself an international model, and the agency is based in Lausanne. That date explains the occasion behind the Kaizen Fashion Show of 23 September 2026. When the D! Club announced the evening, it presented it as the agency’s invitation to celebrate its twenty years.
Women, Men, Kids and Hostesses
Today the agency describes itself as a full-service agency and talent development company in Switzerland. Its website divides the board into women, men, kids and commercial profiles, and adds a hostess division. Courses, a studio and an events section complete the offer. An online publication, Kai Zen Mag, extends the agency’s voice beyond casting.
Twenty years after its founding, the agency marked the milestone on a runway.
A Runway the Club Already Knew
The anniversary was not the agency’s first evening at the D! Club. In May 2025, a Lausanne boutique announced a fashion show by Kai Zen Models at the same venue. For 2026, the club’s programme announced independent boutiques, designers and talents from the Lausanne scene, with models of every age, origin and body type on the runway.
Who Are the Partners Thanked in the Trailer?
Near the end of the trailer, a card reading “With special thanks to” passes over the wall of the evening’s partners. Some of them are Lausanne houses; others come from further along the lake, or from a different trade altogether.
Millinery and Liberty Prints
Chapeau en tête is the Lausanne workshop of the milliner Ariane Delabays, who designs and makes one-off hats according to each client’s wishes. Her site describes two methods: cut-and-sew construction from a pattern, and moulding on a wooden block for felt, straw and natural fibres.
Collection 66 is a Swiss women’s ready-to-wear label, founded in Lausanne in 2000 by Agnès Boudry, who trained in Paris at Studio Berçot. Liberty prints have been part of the label for more than twenty years. Its boutique stands at Rue de la Mercerie 1, and on the night of the show its name also appeared on the screens above the stage.
From Rue de Bourg to the Flon
Amarante, registered as Amarante Modes SA, sells women’s and children’s clothing from Rue de Bourg 37 in Lausanne. HOOT, a Swiss brand with a concept store in the Flon district at Rue des Côtes-de-Montbenon 3, offers limited editions of clothing and accessories, with fashion for women and men.
Wine, Refreshment and Interiors
Ponnaz & Fils is a family wine estate, based in Cully since 1904, making and selling its own wines in Lavaux, a UNESCO World Heritage region on Lake Geneva. Its range includes a Calamin Grand Cru from Chasselas. Rivella is the Swiss soft drink whose group describes itself as a Swiss family tradition since 1952.
Gonca Leu Interiors is the luxury interior design studio founded by Gonca Leu after a seventeen-year international corporate career. Kai Zen Mag, the agency’s online publication, told her story in August 2026.
What Turned the D! Club Into a Fashion Stage?
Thirty Years of Lausanne Nights
The D! Club opened in 1996, and its own site places the culmination of its thirtieth anniversary on 19 October 2026, thirty years to the day after the opening. Its programme brings together international DJs, emerging names in electronic music, Swiss urban DJs, student nights and concerts. Comedy and one-man shows take place upstairs, at the bar club abc. The club says it has twice won the Best Big Club title at the Swiss Nightlife Awards.
Time Out, reviewing the venue in 2014, listed Boy George, David Morales and John Digweed among the DJs who had played there.
A Former Theatre with a Stage and Screens
Time Out also described the building as a former theatre. The trailer shows a stage framed by screens, a DJ booth and a dance floor in front. On 23 September 2026 those screens carried the name KAI ZEN. Models walked the stage before the room turned back into a club at the end of the evening.
A Square Renamed for Pioneering Women
In the trailer’s credits, the club’s sign still reads “Place Centrale”. In May 2023, the City of Lausanne announced that Place Centrale would become Place des Pionnières, a change inaugurated on 1 October 2023. The new name honours all the women who dared to open new paths for women in different fields, and the city called it the most emblematic change of the series. The club’s own address now reads Place des Pionnières 1, while Lausanne Tourisme still lists Place Centrale 1.
How Does an Agency Mark Twenty Years?
Kai Zen Models chose a format close to its own work: a runway show, with models presenting the creations of local designers and boutiques before an audience. There were speeches at the microphone, but the anniversary was above all shown in motion, look after look.
The choice of venue mattered as much as the format. The D! Club, co-organiser of the evening, gave the show the setting of a nightclub rather than a salon: a stage framed by screens, a DJ booth, a dance floor waiting for the end of the last walk. Fashion and club culture shared the same room, and the boundary between the two stayed thin.
Local Creation Takes the Runway
The programme gave the spotlight to designers and boutiques from the region. For the audience, that meant discovering pieces from designers and boutiques close to home, worn by the models on the runway. Inclusivity and diversity were part of the show’s intent, one look after another.
The eco-responsible commitment of the event completed this picture without dominating it. Showing local labels is, in itself, a way of shortening the distance between those who make clothes and those who wear them; here it accompanied the show rather than leading it.
Key points:
- Kai Zen Models and the D! Club organised the evening together, for the agency’s twentieth anniversary.
- Inclusivity and diversity were accents of the evening; an eco-responsible commitment accompanied it.
What Remains of the Evening?
A runway show lasts one evening; its images last much longer. Kai Zen Models Generation, the trailer directed by Michael Bouvard, runs for nearly ten minutes and follows the night from the corridors to the dance floor: preparations backstage, the walks on stage, the speeches at the microphone, the crowd moving to club music.
Its editing gives the film its rhythm. Again and again, a white flash freezes the image for an instant before the action resumes. The final sequence leaves the footage behind for motion design: eight stylised "looks", redrawn in line and silhouette, before the closing signature: the Kai Zen Models logo above the words "20 YEARS".
The film is presented in a cinema format, faithful to its original frame, and the Club publishes it on its channels alongside this article.
Fashion as a Shared Celebration
Seen through the trailer, the Kaizen Fashion Show reads less as a corporate milestone than as a gathering: an agency, a club, local designers and their audience sharing one stage. The atmosphere was dynamic and festive, and the camera kept that energy intact.
Back on Place des Pionnières, the letters KAI ZEN on the screens marked twenty years of an agency. The film keeps the night itself: the walks, the faces in the red light, and the dance floor that followed the show.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the event, and what did it celebrate?
The Kaizen Fashion Show was a runway show organised by Kai Zen Models together with the D! Club. It celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the Lausanne agency, with local designers and boutiques on the runway.
When and where did it take place?
It took place on 23 September 2026 at the D! Club in Lausanne, on Place des Pionnières (formerly Place Centrale), a square renamed by the city in October 2023.
What is “Kai Zen Models Generation”?
It is the trailer of the evening, directed by Michael Bouvard. It runs for just under ten minutes and follows the night from backstage to the dance floor, closing on a motion-design sequence and the “20 YEARS” signature.
Who is Kai Zen Models?
Kai Zen Models is a modeling agency based in Lausanne, founded in 2006 by Maria Opuni. It represents women, men, kids and commercial profiles, and also offers hostesses, courses and events.
What is the role of Le Club de l’élégance?
Le Club de l’élégance is the production and distribution partner of the trailer, which is directed by Michael Bouvard.
Which partners does the trailer thank?
Among the partners credited, this article names Chapeau en tête, Collection 66, Ponnaz & Fils, Rivella, Amarante, Gonca Leu Interiors and HOOT.
Agency: Kai Zen Models
Video: Kai Zen Models Generation, directed by Michael Bouvard
Partner of Le Club de l’élégance: MB Media Diffusion
Venue and co-organiser: D! Club (Lausanne)
With special thanks to the event partners: Chapeau en tête, Collection 66, Ponnaz & Fils, Rivella, Amarante, Gonca Leu Interiors and HOOT.
Partner disclosure: Le Club de l’élégance is the production and distribution partner of the trailer.
Fashion and luxury media: Le Club de l’élégance
About Kai Zen Models
Founded in 2006 by Maria Opuni, herself an international model, Kai Zen Models is a Lausanne-based full-service agency and talent development company. On 23 September 2026, it marked its twentieth anniversary with the Kaizen Fashion Show at the D! Club, putting local designers and boutiques on the runway. The trailer Kai Zen Models Generation, directed by Michael Bouvard, records the night.
Kai Zen Models Generation
The trailer of the Kaizen Fashion Show, 23 September 2026, D! Club, Lausanne
Director: Michael Bouvard
Agency and organiser: Kai Zen Models
Venue and co-organiser: D! Club
Production and distribution partner of the trailer: Le Club de l’élégance
Event partners, with special thanks:
Millinery: Chapeau en tête
Women’s ready-to-wear: Collection 66
Wine: Ponnaz & Fils
Soft drink: Rivella
Women’s and children’s clothing: Amarante
Interior design: Gonca Leu Interiors
Concept store: HOOT
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