It has been two years since Chitose Abe last travelled to Paris to present collections for Sacai, her Japanese label known for its dramatic juxtapositions of texture and form.
Like many others around the world, COVID kept her home throughout the pandemic – but did not keep her from envisioning new pathways forward for the avant garde.
Sacai’s newest fall collection debuted on the Paris runway with panache – every garment a celebration of high fashion and creativity rooted in the classic.
Overall the delivery, with its leather cords and structured jackets, is undoubtedly Sacai.
Chitose designs in a way that is simultaneously unusual and familiar through the melding of disparate ideas, fabrics and shapes into garments that are sculptural while still being endlessly wearable.
One of Chitose’s best talents is delivering character and style by experimenting with shape rather than embellishment.
Her signature, contrasting masculine and feminine elements to create inexplicably beautiful silhouettes, is center stage in cheetah print corsets stitched over traditional shirting pieces and jersey t-shirts backed with gauzy pleats that fan out with movement.
