Chitose Abe isn’t playing nice anymore. And that’s exactly the point.
For Sacai’s Fall/Winter 2026 show, Abe traded her signature sense of playful hybridization for something sharper, more confrontational. This season wasn’t about remixing expectations it was about breaking them. Literally. The walls of Le Carreau du Temple were marked with dramatic punch dents, as if the space itself had been challenged to withstand her ideas. Fashion as impact. Fashion as force.
Inspired by Muhammad Ali, Abe framed the collection as an act of liberation. Not just from aesthetic rules, but from mental constraints. “Breaking through the wall” became both metaphor and mission. It was a reminder that creativity isn’t born from comfort it’s born from resistance.
The atmosphere set the tone. A soundtrack shifting from Queen’s Want to Break Free into a high energy Charli XCX remix transformed the show into a manifesto. This wasn’t nostalgia or rebellion for rebellion’s sake. It was clarity. A declaration that Sacai is evolving beyond hybridity as novelty, into hybridity as philosophy.
Where past collections fused garments through visible layering, FW26 was about deception and precision. Construction became sleight of hand. Skirt-pant hybrids appeared effortless but were engineered from wide-leg trousers. Jackets were sliced horizontally, reattached through internal linings to create silhouettes that looked singular but were structurally complex. Nothing was what it first appeared to be.
Even tailoring loosened its grip. The classic shirt and tie were stripped of formality, replaced by scarf like ties wrapped gently around the collar, freeing the neck from rigidity. Power dressing without the armor. Authority without constraint.
The collaborations deepened this narrative. Sacai’s ongoing partnership with Levi’s evolved into a new language of denim rebellion: Type I and Type II jackets fused with leather biker elements and bomber structures, while flared jeans merged seamlessly into tailored trousers. Workwear met elegance through destruction and reinvention.
A third collaboration with A.P.C. introduced a textile inspired by Jessica Ogden’s patchwork quilts fabric that carried memory, craft, and human imperfection. It was folded into Sacai’s silhouettes like a quiet reminder that freedom is built from fragments of history.
Footwear anchored the collection with J.M. Weston Golf Derbies shifting into a deep bordeaux tone, grounding the chaos with richness and control. Destruction, but refined.
What made this show truly resonate was intimacy. Much like the legendary early 2000s Paris shows, the smaller space pulled the audience closer to the garments. You didn’t just see the clothes you confronted them. Every seam, splice, and illusion was impossible to ignore.
This wasn’t fashion asking for attention. It was fashion demanding reflection.
Sacai FW26 isn’t about disruption for spectacle. It’s about the beauty that exists inside rupture. The elegance of letting go. The courage to dismantle what you’ve mastered to build something more honest.
Chitose Abe didn’t just design a collection.
She staged a breakthrough.
by PINES STUDIOS