The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
LONDON, United Kingdom — Carine Roitfeld, founder and editor-in-chief of CR Fashion Book and global fashion director of Harper's Bazaar, is the latest fashion figure to launch a collection with Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo.
Set to launch at the end of October, the womenswear collection was designed within the framework of Uniqlo's LifeWear concept: clothing designed to enhance everyday life. The collection will be composed ofabout 40 items and overseen by Roitfeld and Naoki Takizawa, Uniqlo's design director.
“Creating new clothing within the Uniqlo LifeWear concept is a great challenge,” said Roitfeld. “I started from the idea of clothes that I would want to wear myself and developed this into clothes that anyone would want to wear, a woman’s ideal of clothes that make her feel transformed when she wears them.”
“Carine goes to see collections all around the world, and the visuals that emerge from this relentless pursuit of leading edge fashion have had a tremendous influence on the fashion industry,” added Takizawa. “The clothing depicted in these fresh and innovative visuals, produced with the fashion world’s most influential creators, seems somehow triumphant.”
Uniqlo, which has over 1,500 stores in 16 markets, is one of the seven brands owned by Japanese holding company Fast Retailing, along with Helmut Lang, J Brand, Comptoir des Cotonniers and others. Commenting on today's announcement, Tadashi Yanai, chairman, president and CEO of Fast Retailing, said: "Ms. Roitfeld is a charismatic fashion editor and influential figure in the fashion world and we are extremely happy to present this collection with her as our collaborative partner."
The partnership with Roitfeld is the latest in Uniqlo's series of popular design collaborations, which has seen the brand partner with French fashion icon Ines de la Fressange and German designer Jil Sander, among others. Also this fall, Uniqlo will launch a collaboration with Lemaire, the French label helmed by ex-Hermès designer Christophe Lemaire.
Uniqlo’s core business is high-quality, low-cost basic clothing, but the brand’s fashion collaborations play a key role in peppering its offering with more trend-led designs, generating excitement and driving consumers into stores. “Uniqlo’s aim is to create everyday clothing that is functional, comfortable and reasonably priced,” added Mr Yanai. “I am pleased that this new collection will allow us to present our customers worldwide with a new type of Uniqlo LifeWear.”
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