Love, fidelity, friendship – values that have always been at the heart of Sacai, and that are more important today than ever in our world.

For Sacai 2022 Autumn & Winter Collection, these principles underpin her approach, as designer Chitose Abe continues her exploration of silhouette, by exaggerating and reducing to make a new Sacai shape. Her focus on the bust and the hips – a long-time pre- occupation of couturiers – leads to a new relationship between what have traditionally been considered codes for masculine and feminine dressing.

Hips are gently padded. A bra-like detail, a signature of the house that’s born of Sacai’s lingerie roots, is applied to the familiar forms of a fisherman sweater or aviator jacket, to make a new shape. A bustier-like layer, reminiscent of a cocktail dress, makes something new and three dimensional when it’s applied to a trench or down jacket. A tracksuit is re-imagined in satin with an integrated bra, the pants split open to make a flowing skirt.

Traditionally masculine pinstripes and shirting are re-imagined in delicate silk chiffon. Reduced surface details and an absence of pattern deepen the focus on shape. Tough platform boots re-balance and ground the looks.

The Cartier for Chitose Abe of Sacai collection today makes its runway debut – a project that continues the designer’s admiration for re-imagining quintessential forms. Abe’s enchantment with the story of Cartier’s Trinity and the sentiments of love, fidelity and friendship on which it is founded, leads to a play with the near century old form, exploring how the shape changes in movement – the distance between the rings serving as a metaphor for the tension between the values of fidelity and betrayal – capturing and freezing it as if in motion. The six-piece collection – including a ring, bracelet, earrings and necklace – makes something new of something familiar. And that is forever the essence of Sacai.

Love saves the day.