Sacai

Chitose Abe founded sacai in Tokyo in 1999, after eight years at Comme des Garçons and Junya Watanabe. The label's first collection — five knit pieces sold to a Tokyo boutique — already contained the kernel that would define the next twenty-five years: hybrid construction, where the front of one garment is grafted onto the back of another. The MA-1 bomber whose back becomes a pleated skirt. The trench coat whose hem opens into a tailored blazer. The Nike LDWaffle (2019) that became one of the most-resold sneakers of the late 2010s. The idea sounds gimmicky in description and is instantly compelling on the body, which is part of why sacai has stayed remarkable for so long. Abe has shown in Paris since 2009 and has expanded the practice into a sprawling collaboration vocabulary: Carhartt WIP, Hank Willis Thomas, NikeLab, Pendleton, A.P.C., Acronym's Errolson Hugh, Beats by Dre, and a long Nike basketball line. Each one carries the same construction logic. sacai remains family-owned and Tokyo-based. The team works from a quiet studio in Aoyama; the flagship is on the same block. Abe was named CFDA International Designer of the Year in 2024 — recognition of a practice that has produced what is, by any honest count, one of the most consequential design languages of the post-Margiela generation.