Uniqlo Makes Bid for Fashion Relevance with Pharrell Williams, Inès de la Fressange, and SPRZ NY

Look out Gap – Uniqlo is flexing its fashion muscles, something Gap has frequently found a challenge.

First came the news that the Japanese fast-fashion retailer was in negotiations to purchase J. Crew. Now they are looking to expand Uniqlo’s repertoire from high-quality/high-value basics (what Gap used to own in market share) to offering limited edition and higher-visibility contemporary collections designed to appeal to the fashion savant.

It’s a strategy that makes sense now that they have gained some recognition outside of Japan. In just the past three years, the brand has opened seven stores throughout the U.S. and last year announced it would open ten more in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and California.

The brand’s new initiatives to be more current and relevant include a special collection with Inès de la Fressange, a collection designed by Pharrell Williams, and another “inspired by” modern artists such as Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquait. And that’s just in the past month.

Inès de la Fressange, a French designer, collaborated with Uniqlo on a small capsule collection meant to invoke her Parisian sense of style. 

The big question is: will anybody really care, and is it enough to drive traffic to the stores? Our guess is that the majority of U.S. shoppers have no idea who de la Fressange is (answer: she’s a French designer, model, former Karl Lagerfeld Muse, and once was the “face” of France.) Her collection for Uniqlo is rather one-note and even matronly – unless you’re as rail-thin as she is.

As for Williams, he is already in danger of being as over-exposed as Karl Lagerfeld, with numerous collaborations to date including Adidas, H&M, Comme des Garçons, Palladium Boots, Moncler, and Louis Vuitton. His collection features the rather disingenuous theme of celebrating “being different.” The collection features t-shirts and hats that say things like The Same is Lame, Think Other, and I Am Other.

Pharrell Williams has developed an empire of collaborations, and Uniqlo wasted little time in partnering with him for a collection featuring message T’s and hats.

Such modernist kumbaya sentiments will no doubt resonate with millennial shoppers who (hopefully) will wear them with some sort of sincerity rather than the smug irony that goes with shirts that say things like Vote for Pedro.

Uniqlo’s SPRZ NY collection, with contemporary works of art, caused Barbara Thau, a contributor for Forbes, to ask in a recent online post, “Will Jackson Pollack T-shirts and Jean-Michel Basquiat jackets sell in suburban mall stores?”

The rather unsurprising answer is yes — at least according to a Uniqlo spokesperson. ““We want to make art accessible to the broader public,” says Eileen McMaster, VP of Public Relations.

SPRZ NY is a collection “inspired by” contemporary art – at least the kind that might appeal to the masses, like Andy Warhol’s famous tomato soup cans.

Certainly a casual stroll through Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, H&M and Zara – all Uniqlo’s competitors to some degree – seems to indicate that the category of “statement” fashion does quite well, especially anything that captures the New Wave/Hip Hop zeitgeist of graphic arts.

Wearable art lets people communicate to each other who they are without having to say anything.

Which is perhaps why the collection designed by Williams may be very relevant, especially for the “selfie” generation who crave self-expression, even if in the end, it just ends up being a different way of spelling narcissism.

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