Sacai’s global tour

It’s often said that you cannot invent that much new in fashion. Those that make that claim should really attempt to get an invitation to a Sacai show, so rich in ideas and so fresh they can be.

Case in point, spring 2020 for Sacai, unveiled Monday in Paris by its founder and creative director Chitose Abe, whose key fabrics were printed maps of our planet.

An ideal material for Abe, who is the reigning queen of composite chic. Jumbling up fabrics and patterns, even as she interconnects eras and silhouettes into unlikely, but never ungainly, compositions.

This season her starting point and finale were charts of the world – the first passage made of swatches of silken maps – as continents collided in a new vision of the globe. Abe then mashed-up that print into a great mini-trench-meets-bubble-skirt look. She even had a soft globe-shaped bag.

Her composite cuts went every way – a classic beige knit dress intersected vertically by a micro-fiber khaki trench; a fab gangster chalk stripe with gigantic lapels held together by an industrial chain and worn over a marabou black mini cocktail. Every member of the cast inside the Galerie Courbe of the Grand Palais clearly loving the clothes. And talk about out-Cocoing Chanel – with a classic four-pocket jacket in a three-piece suit with an elongated skirt. An admirable homage by a great young talent to an acknowledged master.

Abe has also developed a highly influential accessories business – indeed the current worldwide trend of women wearing chunky Chelsea boots with double soles really began at Sacai. Her new footwear fixation: chunky-soled water running shoes with golden buckles. Sure to ignite another movement.

Before ending it all with Kaia Gerber in a multi-flap and panel kaftan in black and white continental maps. Accessorized with a tiny Victorian spyglass.

Phineas Finn, and all true explorers, would have liked this show.

Sacai’s global tour

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