With fashion’s relentless pace and mercurial trends – which can change on the slightest whim – it takes a brave designer to imagine not only a wardrobe primed for 70 years in the future, but one which will also last for the 70 years between then and now.
Step forward Chitose Abe, the endlessly imaginative designer behind the avant-garde Japanese label Sacai, founded after experience as a pattern cutter at Comme des Garçons under Rei Kawakubo, and later in the design team of Junya Watanabe. Revealed today, Abe has united with Moncler as part of its 70th anniversary year, creating a number of garments designed with longevity in mind – bridging the gap between the Italian outerwear brand’s first 70 years and the next.
Moncler x Sacai: the wardrobe of the future
As ever, she does so through shapeshifting, hybrid garments, which contain a multitude of functional elements allowing them to be worn in several different ways. Comprising two full looks for men and two full looks for women, each one is made up of ‘multi-use’ garments – a jacket, for example, can be attached to a pair of trousers to create a boiler suit, while another down jacket has internal straps meaning that it can also be worn as a backpack. As such, pieces have a mood of both pragmatism and adventure – one which may prove fitting over the decades to come.
The collaboration continues both brands’ voracious appetite for collaboration: Moncler has created collections with Thom Browne, Rick Owens, Adidas and Pharrell Williams, among others, while Sacai has collaborated with Nike, Carhartt and, most recently, Mercedes-Benz AMG on a special collection and car wrap to celebrate the arrival of the F1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas.
The Moncler x Sacai pieces first appeared as part of Sacai’s A/W 2023 collection, shown in Paris as part of men’s fashion week this past January. There, Abe looked towards other time-travelling inspirations – notably, Christopher Nolan’s black hole space thriller Interstellar. ‘The importance of learning from the past and a future informed with what’s gone before,’ she said of the collection at the time.
Moncler x Sacai is available from moncler.com and selected Moncler boutiques now.
