Sacai designer Chitose Abe has single-handedly ushered in the industry's current fixation with hybrid clothing. However, nobody to this day handles it with as much creativity and wearability as she does. Only Abe is able to take brightly printed orange and red houndstooth plaids and cut them up with astrakhan shoulder flaps, curly lambswool arms and fluffy Mongolian cuffs, and manage to make the entire confection not only deeply delicious, but absolutely digestible as a practical coat proposal. Perhaps being a woman helps in grounding her collections in functional ease. In any case, she continues to bring her rigorously original eye to the runway, this season working with layers of optically-printed silk with rows of dots and checks, as well as Aztec patterned wools. The pattern was cut into the wool bodies of cropped jackets, or on the fronts of sweaters that featured cotton poplin backs. Cable sweaters and cool biker jackets also got snipped into shreds, creating magnificently sculpted wool jackets with peplum backs and leather arms, or wool slit-skirts with pleated chiffon and naughty lace backs. Oftentimes one doesn't understand where one garment ends and the next begins at a Sacai show; was that a cape, a dress, or a jacket that just walked by? No one knows for sure until one fondles the clothes with bare hands. This is part of the fun of this designer's visual game and why she continues to rank as one of our top talents in Paris.
Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
-
Nina Runsdorf brings classic jewellery back to life to mark 20 yearsNew York-based jewellery designer Nina Runsdorf celebrates her eponymous brand’s anniversary with a new jewellery collection, ‘Archive’
-
Enter the world of Cave Bureau, and its architectural and geological explorationsNairobi practice Cave Bureau explores architecture’s role in the geological afterlives of colonialism, as part of a team exhibiting at the British pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025
-
All-In is the Paris-based label making full-force fashion for main character dressingPart of our monthly Uprising series, Wallpaper* meets Benjamin Barron and Bror August Vestbø of All-In, the LVMH Prize-nominated label which bases its collections on a riotous cast of characters – real and imagined
-
Palace unites with Rapha to celebrate inaugural Tour de France FemmesMarking the first time women will compete in the historic cycling race since the late 1980s, this new collaboration sees Palace Skateboards and Rapha create uniforms for both on and off the bike – including an ‘outlandish’ pair of Crocs
-
Paris Fashion Week A/W 2022: Chanel to Miu MiuIn this extended report, Wallpaper* updates you live from Paris Fashion Week A/W 2022 shows, with rolling coverage as runway events unfold
-
Scene-stealing runway sets from S/S 2022 womenswear showsFrom giant roulette wheels to Olympic diving boards and multi-city synchronized extravaganzas – our pick of the best fashion show sets from S/S 2022 womenswear
-
Louis Vuitton A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women's -
Chanel A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women’s -
Y/Project A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women's -
Sacai A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women's -
Alexander McQueen A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women’s
