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UNIQLO is Japan's most popular apparel retailer and a worldwide leader in casual wear. The brand's mission is to empower all individuals through the clothing they choose to wear. Rather than become characterized by a brand, UNIQLO encourages its customers to integrate its pieces into their own unique style. UNIQLO's Soho global flagship will be the brand's largest retail store anywhere in the world, featuring exclusive products and styles in a dynamic, cutting-edge environment. UNIQLO has recruited many of the industry's top talents, stars and arbiters of style to design and manage the 35,000 square foot Soho flagship.

Working with over 100 factories throughout Asia, UNIQLO is distinctive in that it combines the quality and craftsmanship that is synonymous with Japanese culture with the ability to manufacture in high volume, thereby offering consumers affordable everyday products with exceptional attention to every detail. For this reason, UNIQLO's can offer its customers denim from the same denim fabric mill used by many high-end denim brands at a substantial savings.

Other brands have basics, but UNIQLO's are made according to the Japanese tradition of exacting quality. Every element of production is overseen by their takumi team – fourteen Japanese textile masters, each with over 30 years of specialized experience in their field (sewing, dying, fabric, etc.). UNIQLO places a special emphasis on precision, function and special details that enable the customer to put together their very own look. Each UNIQLO product represents several distinctly Japanese qualities -- classic simplicity and tranquility combined with advanced technology and up-to-the-minute modernity.

Other brands value their customers, but only UNIQLO's Soho flagship store can truly represent the unique experience of Japanese retail culture, offering an environment that is beautiful, clean, well-lit and organized. UNIQLO takes a democratic approach to sales, striving to offer clothing that is universally appealing to all ages, genders and cultures. True Japanese hospitality greets every customer at UNIQLO, where people come first and all are treated with kindness and warmth.

The Fall / Winter 2006 collection is the first to include the participation of UNIQLO's New York design studio, which was founded in the fall of 2005. The New York Design Studio is part of a Tokyo-led project that also includes design teams in Tokyo and Paris. The project is headed by Yuki Katsuta, Senior Vice President of Global Research and Design, who came to UNIQLO after serving as the vice-president of men's merchandising at Bergdorf-Goodman.

The collection presented to you today is made up of three individual categories:

Sophisticated Minimalism offers consumers simple, modern looks with sharp tailoring and fitted silhouettes with a bit of a twist that are perfect for the office. The line is monochromatic, using a very sophisticated color palette of black / gray contrasting with white / beige. Celebrating the classic beauty of a white shirt, the line also includes tight pants and skinny ties to create a streamlined silhouette.

Sophisticated Fashion is stylish and fashion conscious, incorporating a color pallet of brown, beige and off-white with strong accents of red for men and pink for women. This is the perfect daywear for the modern fashion conscious career man.

The Preppy Student category includes timeless, classic looks inspired by Ivy League college students in a color palette of browns with candy inspired pastels. Men's products include classic shirts, argyle sweaters and looser corduroy pants for a more casual silhouette.