Chitose Abe
Designer, Sacai
Having trained in pattern-cutting at the directional Comme des Garçons, Sacai’s founder and creative director has won a strong following with her fluid, multi-dimensional designs.
Chitose Abe is the creative director of Sacai, a label she founded in 1999. The brand is renowned for its prodigious technical ability, splicing two items of clothing together to create a sum that is greater than its parts, counting the likes of Karl Lagerfeld , Anna Wintour and Suzy Menkes as fans.
Abe owns 100 percent of her business, which allows her complete creative control and freedom to select any commercial considerations she chooses. “My collections are based purely on my creative instincts,” she told BoF. “Maybe I’m an idealist, but I am a firm believer that if you’re producing well-designed products at the right price that your business is destined to flourish.”
Prior to founding Sacai, Abe worked at Comme des Garçons as a pattern cutter under Rei Kawakubo and later as a member of Junya Watanbe’s design team. Although trained at one of Japan’s most famous and storied design labels, Abe’s aesthetic elevates and simplifies that of her homeland to finely wrought classics. “Japanese-ness may be important for some when selling to Europe, for me it’s not important. I think it says something that I’m the only Japanese brand that many of my stockists carry.”
The Japan-based brand started showing at Paris Fashion Week in 2009; by its second season overseas, Sacai had won over 15 international clients, including Biffi in Milan, Colette in Paris and Joyce in Hong Kong. Today, the label has over 90 stockists worldwide. Abe has also expanded into other fashion categories through her more streamlined Sacai Luck and Sacai Men’s lines. In 2019, Sacai released collaborations with Nike and earphone label Beats by Dre.
Abe is married to Junichi Abe, the founder and designer of Kolor.
VITAL STATISTICS
VIEW MORE
What is The BoF 500?
The people shaping the global fashion industry, curated by the editors of The Business of Fashion, based on nominations and on-the-ground intelligence from around the world.
ExploreFind out more
What is The BoF 500?
The people shaping the global fashion industry, curated by the editors of The Business of Fashion, based on nominations and on-the-ground intelligence from around the world.
ExploreSacai, Moncler and the Future Tense
Sacai designer Chitose Abe sees her small but perfect collaboration with Moncler as an intellectual exercise that reflects on the distant future of Remo Ruffini’s skiwear behemoth, writes Tim Blanks.
Fashion Is Fishing for New Dimensions
We expect extraordinary craft from Valentino, Schiaparelli and Sacai. The real challenge is making an emotional connection.
Independent Women Brought Hope to Fashion’s Virtual Spring
Women designers, from Stella McCartney to Sacai’s Chitose Abe to Tory Burch, brought a sense of hope and purpose to the Spring shows, writes Tim Blanks.
We Need to Rethink Fashion Month Altogether
Uncontrollable forces made the fashion industry shift the way it operates this past month, offering a moment to contemplate some bold changes.
Top 10 Shows of the Season
After a fashion month where designers embraced contradictions, BoF's editors pick the top ten shows of the season.
Quantum Physics, Sacai Style
The collection had a level of obsessive detail that is, in fact, quite unique in fashion because there is something a little unfathomable about it.
Sacai Will Design Jean Paul Gaultier's Next Couture Collection
The Paris-based fashion house announced Sacai founder Chitose Abe will be the first of many to take on its haute couture collection, following the exit of the brand’s namesake designer.
At Sacai, Peace and Love
Sartorial hybrids have been Abe’s signature for so long, but here she punched through that logjam of seen-it-all-before to create something tough and topical.
Moncler’s Genius Talent Pipeline: Who Should be Next?
The luxury outerwear brand’s innovative marketing model relies on a constant rotation of buzzy talent. BoF spotlights potential future candidates.
Meet the 'Independent Record Labels' of Fashion
A crop of platform-like brand incubators, from New Guards Group and Tomorrow to Dover Street Market Paris, are spinning up new fashion labels for a hype cycle that’s moving faster and faster.