Chitose Abe's sacai presented her Spring/Summer 2019 Men's and Pre-Spring 2019 Women's collections at Paris Fashion Week. The venue, located in the garage of a building in the Marais district that once housed Liberation newspaper, was filled with natural light and spandex, with numerous speakers shielded with fluorescent tape and arranged like a reggae sound system, forming the runway. The first look for men featured a top collaged with Native American motifs and military jacket parts, Nike logo spats, and Native American print shorts. The women's collection featured a short Native American print jacket paired with an asymmetrical dress featuring bias pleats in the same pattern and made of a lacy material. A large Pendleton tag was attached to the hem of the dress, and the designer wore sneakers in collaboration with Nike. This season's instantly recognizable hybrids were centered around a collaboration with Pendleton, known for its wool blankets. This attempt to bring Pendleton, known for its woolen fabrics, to the spring/summer season is a reversal of the original idea, following on from the collaboration with Reyn Spooner, a long-established Hawaiian shirt brand, in the fall/winter 2018-19 season. It embodies Sacai's signature spirit of questioning even seasonal borders. On the chest of T-shirts and hoodies, the word "WINTER" is written in red overlaid on top of the "SUMMER" in "SPRING/SUMMER." The Native American pattern is incorporated into the women's collection using a variety of materials, including fine-wale corduroy, knitwear, and prints. Details shared with the women's collection include a coat with a Native American pattern layered over a check pattern, and grosgrain tape in the colors of the Native American pattern used as fringe.

The deconstruction and reconstruction of denim and MA-1 jackets, and motifs by Dr. Woo, a tattoo artist popular among celebrities, appear on a variety of items such as knitwear, denim, coats, and souvenir jackets, and the idea of changing the garment into a poncho-like style by zipping the arms is proposed for both men and women, and is a distinctive item this season.


Text: Tatsuya Noda