Chitose Abe, Designer Of Sacai, Teams Up With Cartier On The Trinity Collection
Image: Cartier
For Chitose Abe of the fashion label Sacai, the Trinity is the meeting of two luxury industry tastemakers. The designer debuted her Fall/Winter 2022 collection in collaboration with Cartier, with models wearing jewelry from the collaboration. Two rings, a bracelet, a choker, an earring, and a versatile piece that can be worn as an earring or a ring are among the six limited-edition pieces available.
Explaining the joint creative endeavour, Cartier says, “Everything came together in Japan in June 2019 when Cyrille Vigneron, the President and CEO of Cartier, and Chitose Abe, designer and founder of Sacai, who have been close for several years, embarked on a creative exploration dedicated to the Trinity collection.”
Image: Cartier
Cartier reimagined its iconic Trinity collection, which was first created nearly a century ago, as a result of this exchange of ideas. Because the design was unlike any of Cartier’s bejewelled pieces, when the first Trinity ring was unveiled, it immediately became the talk of the town. The ring was designed with clean, simple lines that appealed to both men and women and could easily be worn with any outfit.
Cartier had already started blurring the lines of gendered styling with the Trinity collection, similar to Abe for Sacai’s design ethos, where her Fall/Winter 2022 collection questions the idea of “masculine” and “feminine” dressing.
“The famous chromatic trilogy of the white, yellow and rose gold rings is truly present. What changes is the shape and distortion of the rings: their position on the skin and their function,” says Cartier of the Trinity collection’s latest iteration.
Image: Cartier
The original three-bangled ring, for example, is dismantled to fit more than one finger. This gives the collection a fresh look while staying true to the Trinity’s original intent of being simple and intimate. This collaboration with Abe marked the first time Cartier worked with a fashion designer to create a collection.
Could this pave the way for more collaborations in the future? Arnaud Carrez, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Cartier International, says, “We would never say never when it comes to future designs, but we see this as more of a ‘one-off’ and the final question is always, is this Cartier?”