The Sacai Sensation

Japanese designer Chitose Abe spills the secret to her continual victories in fashion 

- Cherry Mui.

Sacai’s Chitose Abe visited Hong Kong for the first time in five years last October. The designer is based in Tokyo and has been presenting in Paris since the brand’s inception. While the brand is now everywhere, Hong Kong holds a special place in her heart as it is the first market outside Japan to have a standalone Sacai boutique. “I just arrived yesterday. During the pandemic, we heard the market was a bit slow and quiet, so we were expecting that kind of atmosphere,” she says. “But I’ve been walking around and feeling that the energy is very strong here. I was thinking about the moment when I first came to Hong Kong. It’s a really energetic city.”

Visiting the store, which relocated from its original location at On Lan Street to Landmark’s Belowground in late 2022, was certainly on her agenda, but Abe had other plans too. The most exciting and eagerly anticipated was her appearance at Landmark’s BaseHall, where the fruit of a collaboration between the brand and Tokyo restaurant Menchirashi was taking place—with guest appearances by udon dishes from Tokyo restaurant Curry Up and Hong Kong’s own Yardbird. Crowds of Sacai fans as well as udon-loving foodies flocked to the dining destination in the hope of scoring a bowl of limited-edition noodles.

As exciting as this crossover was, it wasn’t required as proof of how in-demand the Tokyo-based label is. Abe has had popular collaborative projects with the likes of Nike (since 2015), Carhartt WIP, Moncler, Cartier, and Dior Men, and was the first guest designer invited to design Jean Paul Gaultier’s couture after the Frenchman announced his retirement in 2020. But she is refreshingly relaxed about the purpose of these partnerships.