For its 40th anniversary, Uniqlo celebrates its textile technologies with a Parisian exhibition

Like Zara, which unveiled its collaboration with Stefano Pilati last week, Uniqlo chose Parisian fashion week to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

The Japanese brand, flagship of the Fast Retailing group, recently presented the first collection by Clare Waight Keller (its official AD who signs the Uniqlo C lines).

In Paris, within the Pavillon Vendôme, which overlooks the eponymous square, Uniqlo unveiled an exhibition entitled “The art and Science of Lifewear”. Open to the general public until October 5, the brand presents its current universes in a scenography that nods to Parisian apartments.

For this inauguration, the founder and president of the brand Tadashi Yanai traveled to Paris. Presenting the approach lifewear of Uniqlo, recalling that the brand has 28 stores in France and 79 in Europe, that it has multiplied its size by 100 over the past 30 years and recalled its motto of wanting to offer innovative clothing with materials that provide functionality. We regret that, while in the French capital for an official presentation, the leader did not take the time to respond to the journalists present. Uniqlo is advancing in France, with favorable dynamics. The brand, over the first three quarters of its 2023-34 financial year, saw its international sales jump by more than 17% compared to the previous financial year, to nearly 8.1 billion euros.

So what is the purpose of this event? The brand first presents its Uniqlo U line, designed by Christophe Lemaire and Sarah Linh Tran, the collaboration with JW Anderson and the latest line designed by Clare Waight Keller. The visitor then enters a maze of six reconstituted rooms presenting the outdoor, sport, cashmere, home, urban and children’s worlds of the brand with the latest collections currently in stores.

A stylistic statement but above all an argument to highlight the technologies developed over 20 years by the brand (with its first Heattech to keep warm released in 2001).

It is on the lower level in the former vault room of the Pavillon Vendôme that Uniqlo has installed a display of the technologies developed with Toray.

There, we are talking about the new modernized versions of its Heattech fabric, but also the use of nanodesign yarn, a development which allows the company to modify the structure of the yarn to give it new properties, such as a silky touch or waterproofing. Puffertech technology allows the brand to replace the feathers in its down jackets with a light and warm material that retains its shape.

“It’s a technology whose uses we are going to develop,” explains Katsuta San, who emphasizes that it required two years of development. Faced with a panel of international journalists, the Uniqlo R&D director said that a fifteen developments are underway in its division lasting 1 to 3 years, not all of them will come to an end Because with its millions of pieces sold each year, Uniqlo defends its own model. quality and functionality in our clothing due to the long-term relationship with our suppliers, like Toray, explains the manager. We can order 1-5 million pieces. We also assure them that their production units are occupied throughout the year.”

Banking on its technologies and, now, on the creativity of the designers with whom the brand collaborates, Uniqlo is expanding internationally. “We are not yet a global brand. Having a store in Milan does not give us the knowledge of customers in Rome. We must show empathy to always understand consumers’ expectations”, explains John C Jay, international president of creation. While the firm’s ambition in the near future is to balance its activity between the Japanese, Chinese, Asian, European and American markets, its management intends to continue to develop, in particular through a network which is becoming more dense and upmarket.

“It’s a question of maturity,” says John C Jay. “We have evolved and so have consumers in 20 years.” However, the manager believes that Uniqlo relies on identical fundamentals. “In 1998, I launched our first campaign for our fleeces. We had an original approach at the time, with 30 seconds on the lives of people like a teacher or a plumber. Today, we have this same truth with our work with the designers we work with we can dress the person who is not interested in fashion, as well as the person who comes looking for a silhouette and the work of a designer.

For now, this combination of durable basics and pieces designed by fashion names seems to resonate with European consumers.