Change is often described as a process. These days, climate or regimes come to mind associated with the word, as situations reach an unavoidable tipping point.
But change is also a Schrödinger’s Cat moment where all possibilities exist at once, and that’s the space Chitose Abe has long mined in her work. Spring had her “thinking about being able to express both the good and bad parts inside [humans],” she said backstage to a huddle of editors.
As is her wont, that came in the usual cocktail of delicacy meets utility, all hard-wearing denim and suiting juxtaposed with chiffons and satins. Squint and there was even a loose historical flair in pompons used where military epaulettes might be or the way cropped trousers were edged with ruffles.
Structured as they were, these looks read like what you’d slip into when about to take on the day — or the world.
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Fur prints and others depicting trayfuls of loose sequins and rhinestones were suggestions that “a person’s good parts can also be a little bad or rather, since it’s all human, that’s fine.”
Tops emblazoned with “A Moment of Becoming” and a collegiate-style crest embodied Abe’s thought of the season, but also described the expertise that led to a parka with two layers mimicking how a lining gets attached, a jacket’s sheer outer shell giving a glimpse of its constituting elements, or the transformation of those loose adornments into decorative trims and panels.
On simpler fare, those ideas came across in the blousy volumes of a lampshade jacket with a high collar or in the kicky hem of a tightly pleated midi pencil skirt.
The Sacai devotee felt sated and for those not yet on board, it gave insight into why Abe’s work becomes more charming as seasons go by.
