Style.com

Sacai

PARIS, March 4, 2010
By Nicole Phelps
Everything is not what it seems at Sacai. What looks like a Rue Cambon skirtsuit reveals itself upon closer inspection to be a tweedy sleeveless vest topping a blouse with the same tweedy sleeves. (Designer Chitose Abe's mannequin presentation makes it possible to spot the difference.) The skirt, by the way, appears to have shirttails peeking out between the pleats, but that's another optical illusion. Meanwhile, the back of a deceptively simple cable-knit sweater dress is actually a cotton poplin shirt spliced to a flaring wool miniskirt. If all that sounds like heavy-handed gimmickry, it's not. Sacai's way of tweaking classics, splicing the masculine with the feminine, and dissecting and reconstructing familiar items is utterly charming. What makes it smart and gives the label's clothes a point of difference on the sales floor is the way, say, the white pearl-embroidered slip underneath a charcoal knit blazer is detachable. That provides the woman who wears it more than two looks in one—the lacy little extra can potentially be worn under countless other pieces already in her wardrobe.

Joining those multitaskers in Abe's strong lineup were substantial Fair Isle knits, draped silk scarf dresses, and schoolboy-ish toggle coats with girlish flared sleeves, along with some clever gloves trimmed at the wrist with pearls, silver chain, and a spray of tulle. Who needs jewelry?

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