Sacai’s Chitose Abe is A Magazine’s Latest Curator

By Laird Borrelli-Persson

For more than 20 years A Magazine has been taking deep dives into the worlds of designers, exploring even the nooks and crannies that have little to do with garments. Such is the case with the latest issue, curated by Sacai's Chitose Abe. The Tokyo-based designer is much in demand, forging collaborations with Carhartt WIP and Cartier, Moncler and Gaultier Paris couture.

Here, editor-in-chief Dan Thawley gives Vogue Runway an exclusive "tour" of the issue, which includes a group of portraits under the title sacaiTHEpeople and a group of imaginary Sacai products dreamed up by Sarah Andelman. There's also a saCOOKBOOK composed of an interview with Bronx-based collective Ghetto Gastro and delicacies made specifically for the magazine by the Japanese ‘wagashi’ masters Toraya and Yoshihiro Narisawa, a Michelin-starred chef.

What does the Vogue reader need to know about the latest issue of A Magazine Curated by Sacai?This is a really consummate exploration of the ideas behind Sacai, a brand that has developed such a cult allure through Chitose's designs, yet perhaps hasn't been explored in such an editorial and artistic way in one place before. They made a book with Rizzoli in 2014, and this is probably the first time—aside from the great exhibition they did at Colette—that [the brand has] had such an artistic expression outside of Japan, as well. I think that's really exciting because the clothes have found such a community of men and women around the world, both in high fashion and also in streetwear, through the brand's incredible collaborations. I feel like this issue takes all of that and brings it together. We’ve been able to really go in and meet the artists, the architects, all the different people that have been a part of their world over the years and put them in one place.

Could that not be said about every issue of A Magazine Curated by?[Until last fall] it was impossible to go to Japan for most tourists and travelers, and so there's been an amazing return to Tokyo and other parts of Japan through travel since the ban was lifted in October. I think the magazine comes at a moment for them that is a crucial post-pandemic reset for Tokyo [and at a time when] Sacai is really coming into its own as one of the absolute premium Japanese luxury brands today. I think their Tokyo store, newly remodeled by industrial designer [Yusuke Seki]be a really great step forward for them to show who they are, and who they will be in the future. A is just a stepping stone in terms of recognition in other markets; they’re already doing incredible things and all the collaborations they’ve done over the years seem to continue to branch the Sacai aesthetic out into different spaces. In the magazine we did a really interesting exercise with Sarah Andelman of imaginary Sacai products. It was really fun to go outside of the clothing space and to think about what Sacai and its idea of hybrids could mean in the future.

I don't know what a "typical" Japanese brand might be, but I’m curious in what ways Sacai is a very Tokyo brand, and in what ways it's not?Chitose has her roots working in other Japanese fashion houses, and working in the Comme des Garçons brands; that was 25 years ago now. …Sacai hit peak recognition 10 years ago when [the brand] became really the toast of Paris. It evolved and sort of concretized as a high fashion brand with an international standing through their collaborations… and also just how the product itself has spoken and continues to have a significant presence on multi-brand and department store floors around the world. You kind of see how it's transcended the idea of the eccentricity of a Japanese brand, I might say. Sophistication and glamour are part of Chitose's DNA and that speaks to a much wider audience than a more avant-garde brand may do.

Why do collaborations have such resonance for Sacai?That question is answered in the magazine with the brilliant study by two Harvard Business School students who break down the essence of what a collaboration brings to a large brand and what it brings to a small brand. I have never in my life analyzed collaborations with such precision as these students did in a purely economic sense. That was something that came from our editorial team as an experimental idea and was approved on all sides.

When I think of Sacai I think of technical prowess, so I was surprised that the designer chose "love" as the theme of this issue—even if her hybrids "marry" different types of garments.There has been a kind of cute and humorous undercurrent to the brand for many years. You could have found it in T-shirt slogans in the past; you can also find it in the wonderful collaboration Sacai did during the pandemic with Hank Willis Thomas, the Black American artist, something that we go into quite a bit in the magazine with a great interview with him. That sort of breaking down of international barriers and that kind of feeling of universal love has been very present in Sacai for some years. And even though, as you said, there's a really technical side to what they do, I think that [Sacai] really keeps optimism at the forefront at all times. The archetypes and the stereotypes that they try and play with when they mix clothing—there's a naivety even to those. Military clothing becomes married with very beautiful feminine pieces, and that kind of crossover of masculine and feminine also just plays to that general idea of love as well.

What did you learn about the brand and designer in putting this magazine together?[One of the questions we started with was]: What is it about Sacai that is so truly loved all around the world? I guess it is the way that they chop things up and put them back together in a new way, but there's always still something that you can recognize in those designs, even though the product itself is quite new.

Another thing that I thought was really interesting was to look at the fashion show development of Sacai over the years with our wonderful story with La Mode en Images, a very secretive production agency who do many of the biggest shows, including Chanel. You [can] see this amazing language they’ve created with Sacai, which basically comes out of a single word theme every single season. It's super, super eclectic, but when you see it on a long term scope, it's like this incredible graphic language that is so Sacai. I was really surprised and impressed by that because when you go to a Sacai show, it feels very singular and it feels very geometric and graphic, and then when you see it all together, there's an eclecticism of pattern and color and shape that is also a big part of their clothing.

[This magazine is] also not just about fashion. We’ve made a magazine with Chitose that absolutely puts her designs on show, but it's not the crux of the magazine. It's more to explain what the world is that she's created and how she applies that to fashion, and to spaces, and to art collecting, food—all sorts of things—which is ultimately what I think the reader's looking for today.

Do you see people situating fashion in a larger context, to represent a cultural shift, or is that a Sacai thing?Even though A Magazine Curated by has always dealt with the art world and things outside of fashion, I would absolutely say that today the educated fashion customer is much more well-rounded than they may have been when we started 22 years ago. This sort of obsessional way of looking at product and fashion is now satiated on the internet; we also have so much more access to the behind-the-scenes elements of fashion, which were not available to the consumer when A Magazine began. That was so much a part of the earlier issues with showing all those tiny cogs in the wheel that was the Maison Margiela many years ago, who were all unknown. Today the fashion designer, as well as creative director, as a wearer of many hats has never been so evident. The way that designers express themselves publicly and privately as collectors and as culture vultures, I think, hasn't changed, [though it's] maybe more public. But the audience is looking for lifestyle, for design, for a more perfected way of life in general.

Are you saying this shift is largely the result of social media, then?I think that definitely has something to do with it, but I think it's also just the general evolution of the fashion industry towards homogenization and the mass market, which has also birthed a countercurrent against that. That countercurrent is within the new elite of people who do want to create alternative worlds for themselves. That doesn't necessarily mean minimalism; that doesn't necessarily mean maximalism; it can mean all sorts of different aesthetics. Also a way of life that can be linked to fashion or not. But I think certain designers can be recognized within and sort of appreciated by spheres outside of fashion. That could be to do with graphic design, it could be to do with architecture, it could be to do with soft furnishings and fabrics.

I think another interesting element that comes through the magazine with the idea of hybridity is this idea of patchworking and upcycling and putting together things that form a new whole. That shows in the quilts made by Jessica Ogden with APC, that shows in the Hank Willis Thomas artworks, that shows in the garments.

Patchworking brings Margiela's sock sweater to mind…. It also occurs to me that Sacai and A Magazine are both independent entities, and how important it is to have those voices in the industry.If you have time, read the therapy interview at the beginning; it was such an interesting exercise to speak to a fashion designer about everything but aesthetics and their designs, and to ask them truly about how they live their daily life and how they cope with it. [Editor's note: This takes the form of two conversations, one between licensed therapist Josephine Creighton with Chitose Abe, and another between Creighton and creative advisor Daisuke Gemma, Abe's close collaborator.] You can read not only between the lines, but on the page, how Chitose's life is completely married to her work, how much she loves that, and how important it is for her that this keeps going and keeps growing. She doesn't know what the end goal is, but she knows that she's still excited by it and it's still what drives her every day to get up, and make something new. I thought that was a really interesting insight into her life; [into her] mental and emotional landscape. And how within the wider fashion industry, there are real problems of stress and coping with being in the spotlight or running your own game or trying to succeed, even when you’re at the top. So I thought that was a kind of radical way to open the magazine.

Did Chitose's feelings sync with your own?Something both Chitose and Daisuke said was, ‘We’re always working towards Paris.’ The fact that [fashion] changes every six months creates a constant sense of the unknown and of excitement, which is its own challenge.

This intervew has been edited and condensed for clarity.