Amber Sakai: Eco-Conscious With a Flattering Fit
Amber Sakai has lived many past lives within the fashion-industry sphere as a model, stylist, intimate-apparel co-designer of Brighdie Lingerie and co-founder of Four Girls patented wetsuits made for female surfers.
Sakai’s latest act is a clothing line bearing her own name that adds a playful fashion spin to the eco-friendly clothing niche. Based on her experience as a stylist who worked with actors and personalities and as a shopper who loves high-end brands but not the skinny size-zero cuts, Sakai designed with everyday women in mind.
“My body makeup does not fit into Prada. My arm could fit into the leg hole,” joked Sakai, who is six feet tall and has a lean athletic build. “I wanted anyone to come in and find three pieces that would apply to them. Whether you are large-busted, have a flat tush, a long torso—it’s going to enhance the better part of you.”
Sakai shows a dolman-sleeve top with a wide neck from the Fall line that continues in three different fabrications for Spring 2010. “I can look at this and say any woman in Santa Barbara [Calif.] can wear this top,” Sakai said. “But then any young girl can funk it up and make it look ’80s and off the shoulder.”
The breakthrough pieces from Sakai’s debut Spring 2009 collection that continue to epitomize the line’s day-to-night style are her lace-accented bodysuits. She evolves the bodysuit idea with blouses, such as a button-up peasant top in organic-cotton dobby that has a bodysuit bottom to tuck neatly into skirts and pants. She thinks of the item as the answer to “What is it that’s going to be able to go throughout existing in your wardrobe? The bodysuit would go with any of the skirts, your slacks, your jeans,” Sakai said.
The line has been sold to Fred Segal Flair in Santa Monica, Calif.; Mulberry & Me in Chicago; and Gia Ventola in Peabody, Mass.
Wholesale prices include $72 for an organic-bamboo/cotton/spandex ballerina bodysuit with French lace back, $60 for an organic-cotton twill dolman-sleeve top, $110 for an organic-cotton dobby check dress and $80 for organic-cotton smocked pants.
For more information, call (213) 618-6183. —Rhea Cortado
