THE VISION OF SACAI

Sacai is a brand that doesn’t follow rules. Rather, it subverts them and shows us how to reinterpret them freely. Founded in Tokyo in 1999 by Chitose Abe, a former member of the Comme des Garçons team, Sacai has redefined the notion of classic garments through the constant intersection of concepts. In her hands, a bomber jacket can become a shirt thanks to the right cuts and structure, or a blazer can even contain a pleated skirt. Sacai turns antitheses into something symbiotic, where each side organically benefits from the opposing structure.

Each collection masterfully blends formal and informal codes, contrasting silhouettes, and seemingly contradictory fabrics. The result is an unsettling harmony, deliberately distinct and radically contemporary.

This hybrid, technical, and deeply poetic approach has placed Sacai in a privileged position within international fashion. Its designs have resisted the fleeting nature of trends thanks to their consistency. These are pieces adapted to everyday needs, yet imbued with strong conceptual value. Wearing Sacai means experiencing the beauty of the unexpected, living at the margins between disciplines, ideas, and functions, where otherness becomes the medium, not the end.

With its headquarters in Tokyo and a permanent presence at Paris Fashion Week since 2009, Sacai is now a cult brand that defies conventional definitions. In its world, a garment doesn’t have to fit into “formal” or “casual.” It can be elegant and functional, structural and ethereal, all at once.

With an aesthetic that challenges categories of gender, occasion, or season, Sacai creates clothing that moves between utility and what might be seen in an art gallery. Its success stems from a coherent vision, executed with technical rigour and the creative freedom of Chitose Abe.

Sacai is, in essence, a way of thinking. One that embraces the unexpected and weaves it into the conventional, turning the everyday into something exceptional. In a moment when novelty seems to last only seconds, Chitose Abe’s work insists on what is enduring, adaptable, and deeply individual.

The story of Sacai began, interestingly, at a moment of deep creation: Chitose Abe’s experience of motherhood. Feeling the need to create after becoming a mother in 1999, and having just left Junya Watanabe’s design team at Comme des Garçons, Abe decided to launch her own brand from her Tokyo apartment. The name Sacai derives from her maiden name, Sakai, swapping the “k” for a “c.”

With a strong background as a patternmaker and a childhood shaped by her mother’s work as a seamstress, Abe possessed a deep understanding of garment construction. Her time within the Kawakubo universe had taught her to break rules from a place of complete understanding, and her personal life had inspired her to pursue boundless creative freedom.

Sacai’s early designs were knitwear, a field Abe believed to be underestimated. She began blending different fabrics, shapes, and concepts: a sweater that resembled a blouse, a skirt with details borrowed from a jacket. With little promotion and limited production, her garments began circulating among Japanese editors and stylists. Before long, buyers from Barneys and colette (Paris) took notice.

In 2009, after ten years of organic growth, Sacai debuted in Paris, marking the start of its global expansion. Unlike many brands, Abe was not seeking rapid scale. Her business model was built on slowness, coherence, and authenticity. An independence that remains the soul of the brand today.

Today, Sacai remains a constant oasis of innovation and harmony between opposites. Creative director Chitose Abe continues to lead design with the same autonomy as in the beginning, though now supported by a global team and structure. The brand has consolidated a unique, instantly recognizable language: hybrid pieces that merge codes from workwear, haute couture, streetwear, and sport. Sacai has shown us that opposites are opposites only by convention, because in her interpretation of the world, they are not opposed, but adjacent. Symbiotic. Connected.

Sacai’s expansion has been slow, deliberate, and thoughtful. Instead of branching into perfumes or accessories, the brand has chosen the industry’s most selective collaborations: The North Face, Nike, Dior, Dr. Woo, and Pendleton have all passed through Abe’s hybrid, experimental filter.

Today, the brand has standalone boutiques in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Seoul, in addition to being present in exclusive retailers worldwide. Among them now: OTTODISANPIETRO. Despite commercial success, Abe maintains that same poetic and creative spark as in the beginning: garments must work and move us. In her own words:

“I design from the question: Would I wear this myself?”

Sacai’s arrival at OTTODISANPIETRO coincides with one of Chitose Abe’s most refined and emotional collections to date. For Autumn/Winter 2025/26, the Japanese designer explores the gesture of cocooning, wrapping oneself up like a chrysalis, through overlapping layers that offer both strength and tenderness. The collection is a deep dive into Abe’s textile sensibility. Parkas, blazers, and ponchos intertwine with knit panels, fringe, and cocoon-like finishes, creating that homely sensation of both emotional and physical shelter.

Sacai’s signature nylon parka is reinterpreted as a visual embrace, with shoulders softened and almost melting over the frame. Military-style jackets intersect with fabrics like chiffon or printed silk, a tug-of-war between delicacy and brute force. More formal suits feature scarves or integrated knit panels. Abe introduces textures such as sequins, feathers, and embroidery that appear in unexpected places. One of the collection’s most iconic moments comes with the eye and lip motifs inspired by Man Ray, embroidered onto faux fur dresses and structured shirts.

Available now for the first time at OTTODISANPIETRO, this first delivery of the collection perfectly summarizes Sacai’s ethos: functional pieces that exist in the in-between, dismantling conventions in favor of an authentic point of view.