Sacai plays with texture and volume in its AW19 collection

Sacai just debuted its AW19 collection at Paris Fashion Week, and fashionistas around the world couldn’t be more exited about the Japanese brand’s innovative and fierce designs. Mixing women’s and men’s clothing, the collection is comprised of timeless deconstructed and reconstructed pieces with lots of texture and volume. 

Describing the collection as “a stew, a melting pot of sacai tastes”, Creative Director Chitose Abe applied the notion of a cultural melting pot to sacai’s signature hybrid splicing, blending contemporary references of freedom and ease. The concepts of togetherness and “freedom of being” are also celebrated and symbolised by experiences in London’s iconic Bar Italia, to reinforce the mindset of having no boundaries in cultural belonging. 

Incorporating both AW19 menswear and Pre Fall womenswear collections, the brand inverts the significance of “dressing to belong” sacai-style, which further highlights the idea that everyone should have the freedom to be unique and different. In a sensual and energetic mix of men’s and women’s clothing, all kinds of people are mixed together in the presentation of the collection.

Opened by Model of the Year Kaia Gerber, the show began in a rather light monochromic colour palette and ended in a much darker monochromic colour palette, with the introduction of more colourful pieces in between. Models were dressed head-to-toe in deconstructed and reconstructed pieces, which, like never before, played with untraditional textile and layer pairings.

As a lover of classic silhouettes, Abe incorporated innovative elements in her designs, by adding leopard print onto the classic trench coat silhouette and tailoring a single breasted suit from sports performance fabrics. 

The runway looks have truly been given a new meaning through the use of techniques like inverting coats and making the liner the outer layer, styling a sweater on top of a jacket, and mixing sports fabrics with feminine tulle and lace, just to name a few examples.

Several collaborations are present in the collection, including sacai eyewear by NATIVE SONS, custom beaded-designed Beats X wireless earphones by Beats by Dr. Dre, Nike x sacai LDV/Daybreak, Blazer/Dunk, and Bar Italia x sacai tees and hoodies.