Japanese high street conglomerate Uniqlo has ended its collaboration with Jil Sander and announced a partnership with Undercover designer Jun Takahashi for its coming collections. Jil Sander has long been known in the industry
as a purist designer, and her minimalist approach to fashion centred on working with the most exquisite fabrics and executed with supremely clever tailoring, without over-design. Despite the high profile collaboration between the German-born designer and Uniqlo, the collections, according to Forbes, were not hugely profitable, even though they were a sell-out at retail level.
Uniqlo
announced Jun Takahashi, the reclusive designer behind the cult label Undercover, is to follow in Sander's footsteps. Takahashi may not be a household name outside of Japan, but his collections are revered by industry insiders for its directional and avant-garde aesthetic. Uniqlo is not his first foray into commercial corporation fashion, Takahashi also overseas a running line for Nike.
Takahashi started his own fashion label in 1993, selling ripped-up, deconstructed, shredded and patched leather jackets and T-shirts. He began showing his collections during Paris Fashion Week in 2002. His presentations were conceptual and challenging: For his Spring 2005 collection, his models wore lace slip dresses with fur epaulets and big bouquets of flowers covered their faces like in a Dali painting; he sent out models in straightjacket-like coats and hooded, pierced masks that obscured their vision for his Fall 2006 show.
The Jil Sander for Uniqlo Autumn Winter 2011 collection will be available from September.
Image: Undercover
Source: Forbes©
