UNIQLO As A Fast Fashion Brand, What'S Good About Him?

Top down fashion

"UNIQLO's sweater is not that far from Hermes," the designer Christophe Lemaire told the media in 2016. The year before, the listed designer of the Hermes company and UNIQLO jointly listed "the use of UNIQLO money to buy the design of Hermes" - a contrast that attracted people's attention.

Looking back on the western media's interviews with Lemaire over the past few years, he will often find himself talking about his disappointment with the high-end fashion industry. He thinks that the fast-paced fashion week is killing the designer's talent. "Every few months, you have to prove that you are still the player of the head." he attacked the monopoly of LVMH and other big conglomerates. When he missed Lacoste when he joined Hermes, he was "excited by the clothes that people could afford at the price."

There are indications that it is inevitable for Lemaire to leave Hermes and join UNIQLO in 2016.

"I am interested in how people dress in daily life. Clothing is a very private thing, it is about how we are seen. (many people think) fashion is an ideal project, but it should save men and women from their dreams. Otherwise, the designer is just playing with dolls. Lemaire claims that his ambition is to fill the gap between everyday and fashion.

To design clothes for UNIQLO, Lemaire insists that its name should be erased from the trademark. "The fashion industry will care about that, but consumers of UNIQLO do not care." Let's touch the real people in the world. No more Uniqlo X Lemaire, Uniqlo U was born.

Intentionally or unintentionally, Lemaire has created a new fashion in UNIQLO. Today, like real big names, the U series is sold in two quarters a year, and the official will give the exquisite lookbook. The latest season's U series is viewled in Cuba, taking the 1970s Paris girl as the theme. But unlike traditional fashion communication channels, U did not participate in fashion week and T. There were no models and fashion editors. A large proportion of users completed their actions from "grass planting" to buying on mobile phones.

Wearing U series has become a fashionable expression. In the early February, there was a continuous preview of the new season in Xiao Hong's book and predicted which styles would become a burst. On the 20 day, the new season is on Tmall flagship store. On the second day, there were fans, and millions of fashion bloggers recorded videos and marked the numbers. In the commentary, many spectators said, "order immediately"; in the UNIQLO store of Beijing, the U series is always in the most prominent position. People wear masks to try out new models, and women look at men's trumpets for years. This is the latest trend.

A kind of   Uniqlo U 2020 spring and summer series have been listed, many fans call it "simply can not buy series".   Map / UNIQLO Tmall flagship store

A Beijing man buys one or two new t-shirts every season, because every season's new color looks so suitable for the season at that time, and the color has already been able to summon the dragon. When he was at work, he and his colleagues crashed into the shirt. The two people felt no embarrassment at all. Instead, they exchanged the pleasure of meeting the same fellow and exchanged the latest purchase experience.

The most common match for female fashion bloggers is an unusual odd uniqe with thousands of shoes and tens of thousands of handbags. Against that background, UNIQLO became the only fashion that could afford it. If several bloggers recommend a pair of jeans at the same time, Tmall flagship stores will soon start to lose their goods, and stores in Japan are likely to be swept away. After all, the price of 299 is really very tempting. But a woman who had bought the last season's U series of exploding jeans said, "I got a pain in my hip bone," and she felt that she could not wear the good results of those bloggers. This experience is quite similar to some big names.

Back to micro-blog, the account @ all 700 thousand fans in UNIQLO will receive Universo consumers' uniforms every day. People can feel the real popular fashion here. Whether they are students or white-collar workers, whether they are at home or on the street, no matter how fat or thin you are, you can get your own UNIQLO collocation. You have the right to show your understanding of UNIQLO fashion, and you will also be praised.

　　 From the fact that UNIQLO is exposed.

　　 To wear uniforms is not good either.

In November 28, 1998, UNIQLO opened a store in Harajuku, Tokyo. The slogan of its opening day was "UNIQLO's fleece sweater, 1900 yen", and the TV station immediately reported, "selling crazy!" The wind of the commentary is, "things are cheap, but the quality is really good." Relying on the sales trend of the fleece, UNIQLO's annual sales in second years broke through the mark of 100 billion yen. In autumn and winter of 2000, the sales volume of fleece is 26 million. In his autobiography, "one win, nine defeats", the founder, Mr. Liu, said that the ultimate issue of UNIQLO is always how to pursue the limits of low price and high quality products through the efforts of the company.

This is the label of UNIQLO for a long time. In his memoirs, Ryui Masaka talked a lot about how he can improve the quality of UNIQLO through scientific management, and how to deeply implant this concept into the minds of customers through TV commercials. In 2002, UNIQLO opened two stores in Shanghai, and Mr. Lin, then China's general representative, said that the concept of casual wear has not yet fully integrated into the life of the Chinese people. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen publicity on high quality.

UNIQLO is not fashionable. For a long time, the Japanese were afraid of being found wearing UNIQLO, and the word "wearing the uniforms" revealed the complex psychology of consumers. A survey conducted by Japan's Web site found that the first reason why the Japanese regret the purchase of UNIQLO is that the rate of hitting the shirt is too high, and the fourth is "one eye is recognized by UNIQLO". Those young people who pretended to be fashions are definitely going to avoid UNIQLO, and others will try their best to process uniformed clothes bought to avoid bump shirts.

Animation "work it!" There is a line in the Lord of lords "not to wear uniforms to go on a date".

Liu has also made some efforts. In 1994, in order to "strengthen product design and information collection", UNIQLO set up a design subsidiary in New York, USA, but its product line was completely annihilated in second years. In the 2001-2003 year, UNIQLO opened 21 stores in the UK and 16 were closed.

"I want to raise this brand to a higher level. The first task is to let the whole world know the real us. People either misunderstand us or basically don't know us. " John C Jay, global creative chairman of UNIQLO said.

During this period, Japanese designer Misaki Sato Cox joined UNIQLO as artistic director. He created the visual style of UNIQLO today. Misaki Sato's advice to Liu well is that UNIQLO is now a model of "not cool". If he wants to succeed in London, New York and other big cities, UNIQLO must have its own style. "It had to be cool".

Ryui Masa's wife suggested that he pay heavily to hire retired German designer Jil Sander, who is known for his minimalism. In 2009, the new series of Jil Sander designed for UNIQLO was listed in the new store of UNIQLO in SOHO District of New York (New York's youthful and vibrant business district). The store opened a special area for this purpose and restricted the flow of people. The new series, with its iconic Sander simplicity, has the low price of UNIQLO. The new store was a success. People had to queue up from a few blocks to enter the store in 90 minutes.

In 2013, UNIQLO began to transform in all directions, changing slogan from "Made for all" to "lifewear". The former slogan emphasized the role of the clothing manufacturer, while the latter concealed the company and emphasized the relationship between clothing and life. UNIQLO explains lifewear: everyday clothing that aims to make life more colorful for everyone, its price is close to the people, its quality is superior and its clothing is comfortable. It is an innovative and aesthetical garment.

It was also in this year that Japanese trend master Nagao Zhimin became the creative director of UT. In 2015, UNIQLO and the then Hermes designer Lemaire jointly launched the series. In the same year, UNIQLO began to be popular with Japanese fashion magazines such as JJ, non-NO, with and VERY. AndGIRL, a 30 year old female group, featured 28 pages of UNIQLO and sister brand GU in the 3rd anniversary issue of the commemorative issue. The slogan is "wearing uniforms is not very good," and even the words "UNIQLO girl" are popular.

In September last year, UNIQLO launched its magazine "Lifewear", a semi annual publication. It was Kinoshita Hyoho, editor in chief of the Japanese mainstream media, and the editor in chief of the former POPEYE, with a circulation of 1 million volumes. Open the magazine, you can read Federer's exclusive interview, cooperation with famous lifestyle magazine Monocle, people from different lifestyles around the world to tell their story with UNIQLO. In the first issue of the magazine, Mr. Mu Tien Cai Liang, a frequent visitor and a Japanese mixed model, wore two pages of UNIQLO, which were added up to less than 900 yuan, and was named by the cultural blogger Linghu Lei's magazine discovery room as the most popular page in the current period.

　　 How to achieve: technology, art and life

In an interview with US magazine, Ryui Masa said that UNIQLO is not a clothing manufacturer, but a technology company. UNIQLO's only competitor is apple. It is impossible to evaluate whether this comparison is accurate, but UNIQLO is trying to achieve transformation by technology and design.

In 2019, the winning business network interviewed the relevant officials of UNIQLO. The other side thought, "art and science are different from the general fast fashion. We have very strong scientific fabrics and design bases to redefine the clothing industry. This is an unexpected demand. (we put people's demand for life in a more scientific, more artistic, more Smart, Easy way to achieve. Science and art should be applied to life, and it will really have a sense of existence. We need to find some series. This is something we want to explore.

UNIQLO is really good at stacking high-tech terms. Almost every uniqe store can find a wall for putting HEATTECH series underwear. No one in the shop looks around. Is this a warm underwear? After a closer look, the column describes how this underwear is kept warm: "water absorption is changed into heat energy". "Cross section technology is used to create air layers between fibers". There is a piece of cloth beside it. Customers can put their hands up, and immediately see the color of cloth darker. The word on the sign tells you that this is a manifestation of heating up.

Nowadays, a lot of UNIQLO products are attached to a few obscure letters to indicate the technical content of a garment: ULD high-grade light down garment, AIRism vest and 3D U-Knit three-dimensional sweater. Too deep? There is also a plain explanation that the ULD down jacket is light enough to float along with the balloon. 3D is the three-dimensional stitching without stitching, which is very suitable for the human body. As for the above thermal underwear, which is "water absorption to heat energy", it has achieved a joint name with fashion brand Alexander Wang in 2018, becoming a truly fashionable underwear.

Last year, UNIQLO spent $300 million to sign the new global spokesperson, tennis legend Federer. In the interview, Federer once criticized the former co-author Nike, "always trying to incorporate modern feeling into tennis clothes, want to add some fashionable patterns, and some are even pressed by trucks. In terms of tennis such a long history sport, dressing is actually symbolic and should not be done."

It is true that Federer and Nike have many considerations about terminating the contract, but his remarks still point to the rationality of aesthetics. After signing the contract, Federer appeared in UNIQLO's tennis jersey for his design, not so fancy, or even a little ordinary, but he was strongly praised by Federer.

Designing the right clothes for the right occasion is the same concept as Lemaire's pursuit of everyday fashion. A man who contributes thousands of pieces to UNIQLO every year has found that when he has any clothing needs in his life, he can be satisfied in UNIQLO. Beijing has cooled down. To buy Uniforms in UNIQLO, the weather is getting warmer. It can buy two UNIQLO short sleeves, go out for mountain climbing tomorrow, go to UNIQLO to buy a sunscreen shirt, go to travel next week, do you want to go to UNIQLO?

In the realization of aesthetics, professional people are invited to do professional work. Please ask fashion designers to operate the most effective way. For a long time, fashion, or interpretation of beauty, was partly defined by luxury brands and top designers. The trend of the year goes out of fashion week and goes to stores through the packaging of magazine editors, and is eventually worn to those who have enough purchasing power. People with low consumption level can only touch a bit of fashionable edge from fast moving brands. In China, they can feel the trend of being transformed in Taobao's various online stores and factories in Yiwu, Zhejiang.

UNIQLO's joint name was originally an effort to transform itself, but broke the flow of traditional fashion, so that consumers could easily buy the clothes designed by people who define the fashion power at the price of the people. This is also the reason for its success.

The 3D U-knit technology mentioned above has been applied in the U series sweater. Imagine an ordinary urban white-collar wearing a sweater designed by a former Hermes designer and applying a seamless 3D U-Knit technology to work in a coffee shop. In this scene, art, technology and life are perfectly integrated. Ordinary people have the power of fashion.

　　 The illusion of fashion democratization

It may not be the original purpose of UNIQLO to make ordinary people have fashionable power, but it is very consistent with fashion democratization in fashion in recent years. Designer J.W When Anderson chose to cooperate with UNIQLO, he said he wanted to make the general public feel that they were part of the fashion system.

The democratization of fashion is diverse: some luxury brands introduce a relatively inexpensive sub line product, and the middle class customers can enjoy the experience of buying the original brand with relatively low price. H&M and UNIQLO have launched the joint name of large designer in recent years, giving ordinary people the opportunity to enjoy fashion, and relying on "who has the right to interpret fashion". With the rise of the Internet, the Instagram, YouTube and micro-blog have become the fashion bloggers with the ability to get information faster than ordinary people, the ability to quickly acquire information and self packaging, and have gained even higher power than traditional fashion magazines to interpret fashion. They can easily sell a shirt on Taobao in a short time.

Xu Xiaomiao, a fashion culture blogger named meow, believes that the combination of fast selling brands and big brands is also a kind of "high mediocrity". This way of enjoying luxury goods at a low price gives us a sense of comfort in "luxury democracy". She believes that social media play an important role in it. "Young consumers are eager to create a unique style in social media while they are eager to integrate into the characteristics of a certain group. They are guiding the market in this subtle trend of consumption."

Venkatesh Rao, a India American writer, is the proponent of the concept of "superior mediocrity". "Many brands are creating an illusion that everyone can enjoy luxuries. By exporting and selling such a concept of" consumption luxury ", people are tempted to consume. He believes that fashion democratization is an illusion and deception. "You only need to visit Fifth Avenue in New York, and you will understand the difference between real luxury and advanced mediocrity." The windows display tens of thousands of dollars worth of clothes and bags, and the lady living in the upper east side wearing the latest Chanel fur may not buy a Hermes platinum bag that she wants.

Scrutinizing the links from the top down to the chain of UNIQLO, there may also be a lot of "manufacturing hallucinations" adulterated among them: is it feasible to put layers of overlapping collocations in Lifewear into reality? In the collocation of the popular uniforms and luxury shoe bags, why does UNIQLO look so good-looking? Does it add tens of thousands of dollars to the Chanel chain bag?

When the illusion is broken, new contradictions may arise. It seems very difficult for ordinary young people in big cities to imagine living in a world without uniforms. Whenever seasonal changes and new sales are launched, the overwhelming network marketing appears on social media. They will still be unable to resist opening Taobao orders or heading to UNIQLO's fitting room. Even if the joint name of a designer is a fashion democratization illusion, why can't we buy a joint name when purchasing power can only bear the brand of fast fading brands? If you can only have mediocrity, why not have advanced mediocrity?

In the world of UNIQLO, we wear clothes that are well matched, designer clothes, rush to the morning and evening peak to make social animals, work late into the night, and pay more and more expensive rents. We all hold the hope that life will become better.

New season UNIQLO and J.W.Anderson The cooperation will come again.