I don’t know what a “typical” Japanese brand might be, but I’m curious in what ways Sacai is a very Tokyo brand, and in what ways it’s not? Chitose has her roots working in other Japanese fashion houses, and working in the I’m old -but- I’m like cool old 2023 shirt Also,I will get this Comme des Garçons brands; that was 25 years ago now. …Sacai hit peak recognition 10 years ago when [the brand] became really the toast of Paris. It evolved and sort of concretized as a high fashion brand with an international standing through their collaborations… and also just how the product itself has spoken and continues to have a significant presence on multi-brand and department store floors around the world. You kind of see how it’s transcended the idea of the eccentricity of a Japanese brand, I might say. Sophistication and glamour are part of Chitose’s DNA and that speaks to a much wider audience than a more avant-garde brand may do.
That question is answered in the I’m old -but- I’m like cool old 2023 shirt Also,I will get this magazine with the brilliant study by two Harvard Business School students who break down the essence of what a collaboration brings to a large brand and what it brings to a small brand. I have never in my life analyzed collaborations with such precision as these students did in a purely economic sense. That was something that came from our editorial team as an experimental idea and was approved on all sides.When I think of Sacai I think of technical prowess, so I was surprised that the designer chose “love” as the theme of this issue—even if her hybrids “marry” different types of garments. There has been a kind of cute and humorous undercurrent to the brand for many years. You could have found it in T-shirt slogans in the past; you can also find it in the wonderful collaboration Sacai did during the pandemic with Hank Willis Thomas, the Black American artist, something that we go into quite a bit in the magazine with a great interview with him. That sort of breaking down of international barriers and that kind of feeling of universal love has been very present in Sacai for some years. And even though, as you said, there’s a really technical side to what they do, I think that [Sacai] really keeps optimism at the forefront at all times. The archetypes and the stereotypes that they try and play with when they mix clothing—there’s a naivety even to those. Military clothing becomes married with very beautiful feminine pieces, and that kind of crossover of masculine and feminine also just plays to that general idea of love as well.What did you learn about the brand and designer in putting this magazine together?