Sandra Sakata

Sandra Sakata (born 1940 in Watsonville, California, USA, died 1997 in San Francisco) was an American fashion designer and fashion retailer. She was a proponent of the art to wear movement and featured one-of-a-kind creations at her boutique OBIKO, founded in 1972 on Sutter Street in San Francisco with Kaisek Wong, Alex Mate and Lee Brooks. Sakata sought to showcase the work of artists she met in San Francisco Bay Area.

A Japanese-American, she was known for being an "exquisitely dressed" "dynamo" and traveled in the Far East. Her apartment included the exotic traditions found there. Author Douglas Bullis wrote that Sakata did more to promote art-to-wear in California than almost any other retailer in the state.

Background
Sakata graduated from California State University at Chico and received a teaching certificate from the University of Hawaii. She worked as a flight attendant for Pan Am for six years before returning to San Francisco. In the mid-1970s she "found her true metier" and became a boutique owner.

Boutiques
OBIKO featured avantgarde window displays and sold the works of many San Francisco designers. Items sold includedtie-dyed dresses, handwoven scarves, hand-painted jackets and handcrafted jewelry. Sakata worked with designers including Kaisik Wong, Lea Ditson, Alex Mate and Lee Brooks, Marian Clayden, Janet Kaneko, Judith and Lin Lundell, Fumiko Ukai and Ana Lisa Hedstrom, Jean Cacicedo and Lin Mizono "I had met so many talented artists in San Francisco, and I wanted to showcase their work," she said in a 1995 interview. "I didn't want to just line the clothes up on a rack. I created a total environment of paintings, antiques, sculpture and flowers to set a mood for the clothing and jewelry."

Sakata played an important role in promoting the wearable art movement. She inspired these designers to produce jewelry, hand knits, woven fabrics, and hand-dyed silks inspired by ethnic influences worldwide that are emblematic of the "art-to-wear" movement. These designs were included at the flagship store, located on Sutter Street near Union Square. She expanded her Obiko boutique in 1983 with an outpost at the Bergdorf Goodman store in New York. It closed in 1997 when she died of breast cancer.

Legacy
Jean Cacicedo's shibori designs included one titled "For Sandra" in homage to Sakata and her Obiko boutique in San Francisco.