PHOTO COURTESY OF SACAI
Sacai always weaves a clever dose of humour into its bags, and the new Watch Belt line is no exception. In its latest drop, Chitose Abe’s label takes a wide, articulated gold-tone link bracelet that’s usually on a wrist and repurposes it as a bag handle. Part hardware flex, part sculpture, the oversized bracelet appears across two distinctly different leather silhouettes.
The first is a deep, slouchy hobo built entirely around drape. There’s no rigid frame here. Instead, the bag holds its shape through sheer volume, collapsing inward at the base in soft, irregular pleats. That deliberate looseness gives it an off-duty energy. Yet the chunky gold-link bracelet handle anchors all that softness, creating a sharp contrast between relaxed leather and polished metal. The second piece flips the formula entirely.
Sacai attaches the same Watch Belt handle to a structured black shoulder bag with clean edges and a compact footprint. Side by side, the hardware acts as connective tissue across an otherwise unrelated pair. One is soft and oversized, while the other is rigid and pared-back. Together, they prove the bracelet-as-handle concept isn’t a one-off styling trick but a design vocabulary the brand intends to build on.
Sacai built its reputation on hybridisation, splicing menswear into womenswear, sportswear into tailoring, one garment pattern into another’s. So translating that same instinct into hardware feels like a logical next step. A watch bracelet is such a specific, recognisable object that repurposing it as a bag handle immediately sparks conversation. Your eye sees ‘watch’ before it registers ‘handle’, and that half-second of recalibration is the whole appeal.
The Watch Belt shoulder bag is priced at SGD1380, while the hobo comes in at SGD1890. Both are available now on Sacai’s online store.
