While Zara unveiled its collaboration with Stefano Pilati last week, Uniqlo has chosen Paris Fashion Week to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

The Japanese fashion chain, the flagship brand of the Fast Retailing group, recently presented its first collection by prestigious designer Clare Waight Keller, who styles the Uniqlo C lines.
 
At the Pavillon Vendôme in Paris, overlooking the eponymous square, Uniqlo has inaugurated an exhibition entitled ‘The Art and Science of Lifewear’. The exhibition, open to the general public until October 5, is a showcase of Uniqlo’s current range, in a setting inspired by a classic Parisian apartment. 

Tadashi Yanai, founder and president of Uniqlo, travelled to Paris for the exhibition’s opening. He illustrated Uniqlo’s ‘lifewear’ approach, recalling that the brand operates 28 stores in France and 79 in Europe, that it has grown in size by a factor of 100 in 30 years, and underlining Uniqlo’s vision of wanting to create innovative clothes made with functional materials. Yanai, who was visiting Paris for this official presentation, did not regrettably have the time to respond to the journalists present. Uniqlo is growing at a steady pace in France, and in the first three quarters of fiscal 2023-24, its international revenue rose by more than 17% compared to the previous fiscal year, to nearly €8.1 billion.

So what was the purpose of this event? First off, to introduce the Uniqlo U line, designed by Christophe Lemaire and Sarah Linh Tran, as well as the collaboration with JW Anderson, and the latest collection designed by Waight Keller. Visitors to the exhibition then enter a succession of six rooms fitted out to showcase the latest Uniqlo collections in the outdoor, sportswear, cashmere, home, urban, and childrenswear categories, currently available in-store. 
 
The showcase is both a style statement and a way to highlight the technologies developed by Uniqlo in the last 20 years. Heattech, a fabric developed to retain warmth, was in fact introduced in 2001.

In the basement, formerly the Pavillon Vendôme’s vault, Uniqlo has set out the technologies developed in collaboration with fabric producer Toray.
 
These include new, upgraded versions of Heattech, and others made using nanodesign yarn, an innovation that enables Uniqlo to modify the yarn’s structure and give it new properties, such as a silky touch or waterproofing. The Puffertech technology instead allows Uniqlo to replace down feathers in its quilted jackets with a lightweight, warm material that retains its shape.
 
“It’s a technology that we’re going to elaborate further,” said Yuki Katsuta, Uniqlo’s global head of research and design, underlining how it took two years to develop. Speaking to an audience of international journalists, Katsuta said that some 15 innovations are in the pipeline in his department, over a period from one to three years, and not all of them will be ready at the same time. Uniqlo sells millions of units per year, and is able to develop exclusive solutions. “Our clothes’ quality and functionality are made possible by the long-term relationship we have with our suppliers, like Toray,” said Katsuta. “We’re able to order from one to five million units at a time. We also assure [suppliers] that their factories will be kept busy throughout the year,” he added.

Leveraging these technologies and, now, the creativity of the designers with whom it collaborates, Uniqlo is growing internationally. “We aren’t a global brand yet. Having a store in Milan does not make us well-known to consumers in Rome. We need to be empathetic in order to always understand what consumers expect,” said John C. Jay, head of international design. In the next few years, Uniqlo’s goal is to balance its business between the Japanese, Chinese, Asian, European and US markets, while of course continuing to grow, notably by opening new stores and going further upmarket.

“It’s a matter of maturity. We have evolved, and consumers too have changed in 20 years,” said Jay. However, he believes that Uniqlo’s fundamentals remain the same. “In 1998, I launched our first campaign for our fleeces. We went for an original approach then, showing 30 seconds in the lives of people like a teacher or a plumber. Today, we’re equally truthful in the work we do with the designers who collaborate with us. We’re able to dress people who aren’t interested in fashion, just as people who are searching for a designer-styled look,” he concluded.
 
For the time being, Uniqlo’s combination of evergreen essentials and items created by renowned designers seems to resonate with European consumers.