Sacai

Japanese designer Chitose Abe launched Sacai in 1999, after eight years spent working at Comme des Garçons with Rei Kawabuko as a pattern-cutter, and then as a designer in Junya Watanbe’s team. Abe’s own brand debuted in Paris in 2009, gaining the attention of prestigious buyers and fashion insiders alike: think of Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld, who even wore a Sacai blazer to a Chanel press event. Abe’s trademark is reinventing wardrobe classics, like a pleated skirt, a biker jacket or a pair of trousers. “I realised that I always wanted to wear the same kind of clothes,” she says, “but I could make them different.”