re : define
The
Glowof
Uniqlo
BY MELANIE BECKWITH
The quintessential minimalist designer Jill Sanders finds her ying the perfect yang for Uniqlo’s fast retailing aesthetic and Japan’s insatiable fashion- conscious appetite.
S
ome partnerships, like marriages, are for a lifetime. Others, unfortunately, sour quickly leading to a messy, acrimonious dissolution. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say, and for designer Jill Sander, the days of constantly butting heads with Prada’s Patrizio Bertelli, causing her to quit the label twice, with the final time being in 2004. That is a fabric long ago woven into a tapestry of quite a different design. These days, Jill Sanders has found her design nirvana in the form of fast retailing giant Uniqlo, the Japanese answer to H & M. So much so that she has renewed her contract with Uniqlo indefinitely, a welcomed agreement on all sides. Fast retailing is quite a different approach to designing clothing, for this wellknown, very hard to please designer with a penchant for minimalism, sculpture and architecture. Her design aesthetic has not changed, there are the monastic-influences, great tailoring, mastery of cut, monochromatic colour schemes, simplistic shapes that are effortless, and at their heart very Japanese. However, with this partnership, unlike the Prada one, Sanders is given complete freedom to create and collaborate, with sales figures for her line, + J, bearing out the
fruit of that decision. The line, chock full of everyday basics, happens to be high-quality essentials that are made fast and made well. The true bonus point? That they are priced reasonably, allowing everyone to have Sanders’ minimalist signature, just not at Haute prices. Many of the signature pieces are items which seem plucked right out of Sanders’ own private closet. Often the camera-shy designer has been photographed wearing her + J pieces — the crisp Peter Pan collar shirt, the long navy overcoat, the slim-fit pinstripe pants. The reception for Sanders in Japan has been a very warm one, so much so that she was awarded the Designer of the Year award from the Fashion Editors Club of Japan at a gala dinner. An honor, that is usually reserved for a Japanese designer. Perhaps the fact that she works and designs for a Japanese company helps, that and her boss is the richest man in Japan, Fast Retailing’s chairman and chief executive officer Tadashi Yanai. Sanders has been quoted in many news media outlets as stating “I try as much as possible to give you a great basic product and what comes out, I feel, is really amazing,” she said.
One of the greatest lessons it seems the designer has learned is that there are lower-priced fabrics — high-tech cottons, cashmere and silks — that can be used to produce amasing quality clothing. Of course, Uniqlo is not the only company that understands the impact that a high-profile, high-end designer can bring to their brand. H & M is one of the best examples of the ‘fast retailing’ landscape and how profitable the right collaboration partners can be. Like Sanders + J, H & M has gone from strength to strength with collaborations with Lanvin, Cavalli, McCartney and Comme des Garçons. Unlike H & M, Uniqlo recognises the continued success of growing the + J brand slowly and the importance of having Sanders on board indefinitely. Why was this partnership the match made-in-design heaven? Perhaps it is Sanders mellowing with age and having learned her bitter sweet lessons with Prada, or perhaps it is simplier still, that the brand actualy listens to her and understands the journey and the big picture. Whatever the harmonious cause, Sander, Uniqlo and +J brand seem to be on the long track to design happiness and continued brand nirvana.