Sacai’s Fall/Winter 2015 show took place in Galerie 2, on the 6th floor of Centre Georges Pompidou modern art museum last monday morning. The crowd was more than eager and impatient to discover what Chitose Abe had up her sleeve after the dysfunctional escalators at the entry. The Tokyo-based designer, who rose to fame with Comme des Garçons, never disappoints and never fails to innovate in one way or another. This season, she did it again. If anything, it’s one of Sacai’s strongest collections yet.
It started off firm with car coats that screamed out couture-inspired but completely urban and city-adapted in nature. Later, giant furs were exploding out of collars, cuffs and hemlines of M65 parkas. This was one of the highlights. The coats were irresistibly good looking, cosy and cool. Peacots, vercoats, army parkas, motorcycle jackets and chunky Aran sweaters were exaggerated in volume and often used masculine, heavy fabric. Worth a special mention is the knitted jacket with panels of macramé string fringing in front of the coat, showcasing once more Abe’s skilful techniques. The collection was almost entirely comprised of outerwear but that certainly doesn’t mean Abe forgot about what to wear under the cocoons. Sweater dresses, again in chunky knits discreetly revealing white under shirting on the shoulders, cotton flippy skirts, dresses with mash-up chevron and square patterned silks as well as pleated dresses were cleverly featured and paired with.
With all the clean-cut, sometimes uninspired designs dominating the runways, it is refreshing even a little daring on her part to design these, at heart, very functional clothes and simple pieces to wear with such un-generic vision. It’s almost certain that next winter, a Sacai coat will be everybody’s essential. (Text Aishanatasha Adisasmita)