March 6, 2017 |
The idea of appropriating one’s nighttime garments as daywear does hold a strong appeal – there’s something quite louche about wearing what one could have, potentially, worn to bed the night before. Not that, we should note, this is something that we have ever tried ourselves, being that this idea relies on the assumption that your nighttwear has some sort of visual appeal. Which ours do not. So what does Chitose Abe of Sacai wear to bed? Sorry if that sounds a bit perverse, we’re asking because, as the press release said, her AW17 collection was about “mixing workwear with day-wear with evening-wear with sleepwear.” We have, on several occasions, referred to Abe as the queen of the mash-up in reference to her uncanny ability to take two, three, four, disparate elements or references and bringing them together into something that makes total sense. Here, this came through in that nighttime, almost boudoir, sensibility combined with the clothing of everyday life. Pyjamas became a suit or those silky, Chinese-tinged floral fabrics that one tends to link with nightwear, formed instead MA1 flight jackets and these panelled skirts, fastened with poppers. That tie-waist you might find on a dressing gown was here worn over dresses and coats. And, because woman cannot live on nightwear alone (I dunno – something about bed sores) the rest of the collection fell into that vein of elegant streetwear that Sacai are known for (and so good at) – huge puffas with coloured fur that sat atop, long denim skirts, proportions warped with sheer panels, more denim in the form of these big, oversized jean jackets. Ski-wear inspired parkas, sporty anorak dresses that tied at the waist with a toggle. Clothing for every occasion – or, as Abe said: “wear what you want, when you want and how you want.” Preach.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
