Uniqlo, the Japanese retail behemoth owned by Fast Retailing, takes in roughly $2.5 billion (¥355.6 billion) in annual profits and has more than 2,500 stores globally, including 61 in the United States. It is known for its smart, affordable basics — cashmere and merino sweaters, Ultra Light Down jackets and tailoring — that are conservative and classic, yet hip to the times. The same description applies to Uniqlo’s robust fashion collaboration machine.
The practice of mass brands collaborating with runway designers is now ubiquitous — and mutually beneficial. The financial powerhouses get the imprimatur of chic, and haute designers get a giant marketing budget with which to reach new customers.
Typically, the big brands place their bets on designers with the household-name fame and flash of a Karl Lagerfeld or Versace. But Uniqlo has favored more quiet, studious members of luxury’s head-of-the-class. Jil Sander, JW Anderson and Lemaire were all tapped by Uniqlo for successful collaborations that lasted several years, not just a season.
If Uniqlo is the popular, overachieving, Type A child in the Fast Retailing family, then GU (pronounced like the letters G and U) is its trendier, more creative and progressive sibling. GU sets itself apart from competitors by offering one-tenth of the number of items that are “curated” in the name of lowering environmental impact and waste.
Designer Jun Takahashi founded his brand Undercover while he was still a university student.
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Now GU is coming to America. On Thursday, Sept.19, GU, which operates 470 stores in Asia, opened its first flagship outside the continent, at 578 Broadway in SoHo in New York City. E-commerce and an app were also released Thursday in the United States.
Naturally, there is a designer collaboration in the mix, and it follows Uniqlo’s niche playbook.
On a recent Thursday morning, Jun Takahashi, designer of the Japanese label Undercover, was at GU’s SoHo offices to discuss Kosmik/Noise, the 22-piece all-gender collection he designed for GU. The collaboration began in 2021, but with the opening of GU’s New York store and e-commerce, Kosmik/Noise is newly available to a global audience.
Takahashi, who turned 55 on Sept.21, was wearing a wide-brimmed Undercover hat branded with an upside-down A for anarchy, Buddy Holly sunglasses and a shirt from a recent Undercover collection with patches printed with scenes from “Twin Peaks.” He was jet-lagged. His three-day trip to New York was his first in nearly a decade.
“Nothing’s changed,” he says of the city, with the help of a translator. His schedule was mostly devoted to meetings for GU, though he managed to squeeze in a trip to the Museum of Modern Art.
A “Wizard of Oz” motif plays out across a series of sweatshirts.
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Takahashi is considered a punk poet and modern oracle among fashion insiders. He began showing Undercover in Paris in 2002 at the behest of Rei Kawakubo. Nike, the North Face, Sacai and Uniqlo have tapped him for collaborations in the past. Takahashi excels at layering ordinary, everyday garments with bits of art, cinema and music, about which he is deeply passionate.
A onetime member of a Sex Pistols tribute band in Tokyo, Takahashi has a Spotify account loaded with 116 playlists titled Kosmik Musik, with tracks by David Byrne, Olafur Arnalds, Bach and Television, all running around 120 minutes — the time it takes him to commute to work.
Undercover’s designs are known for delivering a rush of feelings capable of knocking the cynical wind out of the most seasoned fashion critics. Consider, for instance, the spring 2018 collection of reversible garments was shown entirely on eerie sets of twins inspired by “The Shining.”
Last year, Takahashi showed glowing dresses with skirts designed like terrariums filled with flowers and live butterflies (that were set free after the show). The dresses were meant as a statement on grief and feeling stuck in a world from which he craved release.
The concept for the GU collaboration was more down-to-earth. Takahashi wanted to do simple items injected with a small dose of design, much like the T-shirt that started Undercover back in 1990. He defined Kosmik/Noise as “putting some spice into daily life.” The collection’s title is printed on shopping bags, T-shirts and collegiate sweatshirts.
The concept for the GU collaboration was more down-to-earth. Takahashi wanted to do simple items injected with a small dose of design.
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There are tracksuits trimmed with a graphic pattern that match the tattoos on Takahashi’s arms, a graphic used in Undercover’s first Paris show. A “Wizard of Oz” motif plays out across a series of shirts, including one still of the Wicked Witch of West and Dorothy printed with the graphic headline “Surrender Dorothy.”
Does one detect a whiff of the political?
“No,” Takahashi says.
In addition to designing clothes, Takahashi has a fine art practice. He began exhibiting his paintings last year and will have a show next month in Hong Kong. Apples are a consistent theme in his work. The fruit makes an appearance in Kosmik/Noise, printed on a T-shirt surrounded by the words “heaven,” “the universe,” “chaos” and “hell.” Asked to explain, Takahashi offered:
“It’s not like I’m eating apples all the time,” he says. “But the apple can have two sides. In ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ it can be a poison apple. But it can also be something really cute.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times
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