Tomo Koizumi & sacai's Colorful Bags Are Visual Dessert
How does sacai founder Chitose Abe find time, in between expansive tear-it-down-and-start-over seasonal collections, to expand her efforts with Jean Paul Gaultier and her brand's collaborative output? It's a mystery to us all, but hey, at least there's now a wider release of wunderkind Tomo Koizumi's sacai bags.
Koizumi, a recent LVMH Prize finalist, is a gown wizard, cooking up intensely ruffled wearables that are more couture than ready-to-wear. Laden with layers of densely-curved Japanese polyester organza are soaked with color and piled high, almost obscuring the wearer in bushels of flowery fabric. Too much of a good thing? Impossible!
For his first-ever RTW offering, Koizumi partnered with sacai back in November for a small sampling of ruffly bags in technicolor hues. Bright orange, yellow, blue, and green draw the eye into the bags' billowing form, and though there are some black iterations also available, the gradient-tinged items are the real stars of the show. All three sizes — Bum Bag and Large or Small Tote — employ their own handle styles for distinct carrying methods.
The Bum Bag, for instance, boasts a padded strap ideal for wrapping around the waist or shoulder, complete with d-rings for additional utility. Both iterations of Tote sport trim leather handles sprouting from their top to outpace the Bum Bag in elegance and the Large edition also offers a lengthier strap for shoulder situating. Koizumi also tapped sacai's inherent quirkiness for a set of tousled leg warmers in matching shades, finished with elastic entryways to make for ideal summer accent pieces.
All of the collaborative Tomo Koizumi items will launch on sacai's web store, Dover Street Market Ginza, and select international stockists in the coming weeks, but Japan gets first dibs beginning June 4.