Fashion career profile
Chitose Abe
Chitose Abe is a Japanese fashion designer and the founder and creative director of sacai, established in Tokyo in 1999. Before launching the label, she worked as a pattern cutter for Rei Kawakubo and as a member of Junya Watanabe’s design team at Comme des Garçons. Abe began sacai with a small group of hand-knit garments; its early emphasis on craft developed into a design vocabulary that joins and transforms familiar wardrobe forms. The company added menswear in 2009 and began showing in Paris later that year. In 2021, Abe became the first guest designer to create a Jean Paul Gaultier couture collection after the founder’s retirement. That one-season collaboration is separate from her continuing leadership at sacai and is not a permanent appointment at Gaultier. Her work is often described through hybrid construction, but the career history here focuses on the documented roles and dated collection milestones behind that reputation.
- Role
- Founder and Creative Director, sacai
- Nationality
- Japanese
- Age
- 61
- Career appointments
- 4
- Fashion houses
- 3
- Active roles
- 2
- Comme des Garçons — Designer1989–1997 · former
- sacai SS27 Finds New Form in “Moment of Becoming”Hypebeast Fashion · 2026-10-06
- In Paris, Sacai dissects human existence, while Agnès b. unpacks her bags in MarseilleFashionNetwork · 2026-10-06
- SacaiThe Impression · 2026-10-02
- Education: Bunka Fashion CollegeThe Gentlewoman’s profile describes Abe’s attendance at the Tokyo fashion college. · The Gentlewoman
- sacai: Established in Tokyo in 1999The official sacai About page names Abe and the establishment year. · sacai
- Earlier design work: Pattern cutter for Rei Kawakubo; member of Junya Watanabe’s design team at Comme des GarçonsInterview Magazine describes these two pre-sacai professional chapters without assigning unsupported dates. · Interview Magazine
- Collection expansion: Menswear began in 2009; Paris shows followed in October 2009The official sacai About page dates the menswear launch and Paris calendar debut. · sacai
- Guest couture: Designed Jean Paul Gaultier’s Autumn/Winter 2021 haute couture collectionThe collaboration was a one-season guest-design project after Gaultier’s retirement, not a permanent creative-director appointment. · British Vogue
- 1999 — Establishes sacai in TokyoAbe founds the label after her earlier studio career.
- 2009 — Adds menswear and begins Paris showsThe house expands into menswear and presents in Paris in October.
- 2021 — Designs Jean Paul Gaultier haute coutureAbe creates the house’s Autumn/Winter 2021 collection as a guest designer.
- 1999–Present — Creative Director — sacaiCurrent appointment · sacai
- 1999–Present — Founder — sacaiCurrent appointment · sacai
- Start not documented–End not documented — Pattern Cutter; design-team work on Junya Watanabe collections — Comme des GarçonsHistorical appointment · Interview Magazine
- 2021–2021 — Guest Designer, Haute Couture — Jean Paul GaultierHistorical appointment · British Vogue