No matter how hard people try to define and interpret Chitose Abe’s hybrid approach to fashion and at times garments can seem complicated and awkward, at the core of her work at Sacai is making great looking clothes that people want to wear straight off the runway. Yesterday’s Sacai Men’s F/W 2026 show in the Marais was exactly that. We found this season was about rewriting the codes of elegance for her and Abe used a Freddie Mercury acoustic sample of Queen’s song I Want to Break Free as the opener and spliced that sample throughout her usual uplifting 90s New York house soundtrack. In a season of formal, Abe had her own great looking take on white shirts and black ties but hers were loosely tied around the neck and combined with a new introduction of long research into a hybrid which was made from one piece of cloth cut trousers with a waist-hugging skirt. That hybrid alone made the show worth watching and seems like a definitive take on a slowly emerging trend as runways are awash with skirts or shorts over long trousers.

Also, her amazing development of her collab with Levi’s where some of the denim suits had a new attitude that took the archetype fabric into a whole new elegant world is worth noting. Sacai men’s has been anchored in a workwear aesthetic, ever since the brand did a collab with Carhartt WIP a few years ago and most blousons, bomber jackets and parkas come in nylon and stiff cotton with multi pockets all over the garments always combined with her new hybrid skirt and trousers. Also, the sight of chocolate brown suede leather in the beginning of the show on outerwear felt fresh. Our thought: It would be nice to see Sacai as a men’s only show in the future. Click here to read about her last collection: Sacai Men’s F/W 2025