"SACHI.LA is a gathering place for the curious, kind and passionate; a place to come together. We are here to remind you to discover happiness in your life and to share love with others and the world.”

INTERVIEWER ROBYN NGAN

PHOTOGRAPHER MATTHEW CHRISTOPHER MILLER

Cafes and coffee shops have long been the gathering place of individuals to exchange ideas, share laughter and create new memories. Whether it’s over steaming cups of coffee or alongside the incessant tapping of laptop keys, Sachi.LA caters to all. Run by sister duo Sachi and Chiyo Hartley, the store basks in the Californian sunlight, radiating warmth through an ethos of geniality and family as an extension of the home. ‘Sachi’ after all means happiness.

Caught between two worlds, the Saratoga-born siblings are American by birth but Japanese by heritage. There’s a sense of uniqueness about them. Despite being so young, they both seem to have found the key to life and hold a pure tenderness that can draw anyone in. The bilingual sisters attribute it to their acceptance of their differences. Although they grew up frequenting Japan, they could never find the right words to describe their motherland to their friends in America. Their father worked in HR in the Silicon Valley, while their mother worked in the Japanese entertainment industry before moving to the US. Sachi inherited the green thumb of her maternal grandparents who were farmers in Japan and is proud of the fact that living out in LA hasn’t stopped her from growing a collection of more than one hundred plants.

Sachi.LA boasts an open, natural space, with wooden interiors and potted plants that sit neatly on the shelves and hang effortlessly by ropes. A coffee shop by day and event space by night, the store is filled with a tranquillity and solace that overcomes you with zen the second you enter it. This simple, throughout aesthetic of Sachi. LA is driven by the Japanese philosophy of ‘wabi sabi’, the idea that nature triumphs over the endeavour of perfection. Flawlessness is not a requirement of beauty. Sachi and Chiyo remind us that they are after all, only human. Their philosophies come from their Japanese heritage; Japan is a spiritual place that emphasises courtesy when it comes to social interactions. It’s no wonder the girls are so conscious of the mark they leave on this earth: while Sachi is currently working towards her Horticulture Certificate through UCLA Extension, Chiyo runs a vintage and recycled clothing store, Civil Rags. The sisters reinforce and seek to emulate the morals instilled by their family and their culture by pushing a narrative that requires kindness in order to create a strong community.

Today, they run the day-to-day administration of the store themselves. They hire and train their employees, buy and merchandise their retail items, and even work the coffee bar themselves. Despite being three and a half years apart in age, the sisters have such an undeniable bond that you’d think they were twins. Chiyo majored in Psychology at Loyola Marymount University, but dabbled in everything: she went from being a designer and buyer to a model under Photogenics. Having recently taught herself how to sew, she is now also an amateur seamstress who creates upcycled and recycled garments for Civil Rags and prints with cotton blocks from Japan. Sachi studied Business Administration at the University of San Diego be-fore moving to LA to live with Chiyo. The pair have been inseparable ever since and live together in their apartment of plants, akin to an LA version of a terrarium.

Sachi.LA is their passion project and they have been hands-on since day one. From the location and the floor plan drafts to the material and coffee selection, everything has been done by the sisters. It is a materialisation of their dream. Curated with trinkets, every inch of the store is decorated with knick-knacks and bibelots collected from their grandparents’ home. Daruma dolls sit proudly as good luck charms, whilst a lantern from their grandfather sways in the wind. They say it’s their favourite item because it reminds them of their heritage and how far they’ve come.

The Japanese kanji character for ‘Sachi’ sits proudly as their logo – a word that means bliss fortune and happiness. It is a microcosm of their aims and the purpose of their shop as a meeting place to chat and share happiness. Like the space they created, the coffee that they serve also brings people together. Oakland-roasted vanilla coffee is a home comfort to Sachi and Chiyo, it’s the aroma of their home in Japan, a mix of their two worlds and a representation of their souls. Ever since they were children, the Hartleys would bring coffee beans from America to their family living in Japan. Altogether, they’d gather around the living room table and chat over a fresh brew of coffee. It soon became a tradition that grew to include extended family and friends and continues till this day. Inspired by a family joke, the idea of Sachi.LA originated out of the intimate, informal conversations the sisters had over coffee in Japan.

Like the concept of ‘wabi sabi‘, Sachi and Chiyo don’t strive for perfection. Their GoFundMe may not have been able to achieve their proposed amount, but in no way has that stopped the sisters. They favour the ebbs and flows in life, accepting that failure is often part of the process and jointly agreeing that the fear of failure would only serve as a hindrance to their journey. Confident in their abilities and dedication, the pair worked as wholeheartedly and as diligently as they could. They treat their challenges as though they’re playing a video game and remember to celebrate even the smallest of victories. As curious and eager to learn as they are, they are just as willing to impart the wisdom they have learned along the way.

The California-based coffee-brewing sisters have created a space that represents the philosophies and hearts of their Japanese family. Passed on by the generations of their family before them, the appreciation of nature is something they both seek to share with the rest of the world through Sachi.LA. As an extension of their home and themselves, it encompasses the spirits of Sachi and Chiyo.

This profile was originally published in The WOW N° 2, 2019.

SACHI & CHIYO HARTLEY

SHIATZY CHEN

MODERN ANEMONE