UNIQLO's Japanese Pop Culture T-Shirt Project

UNIQLO :

UNIQLO—Japan's most popular apparel retailer and worldwide leader in casual wear, is opening its global flagship store in SoHo New York this fall.

PROJECT :

“Modern Japan” is one of the themes of UNIQLO's global flagship. The preparation is well under way, with Creative Director Mr. Kashiwa Sato and Interior Designer Masamichi Katayama (Wonderwall) creating a space that expresses “the atmosphere of today's Tokyo.”

As the centerpiece of our store, we will have a gallery space that exhibit T-shirts designed by the top Japanese artists, including Yayoi Kusama, Nobuyoshi Araki, Takashi Honma, Osamu Tezuka, Godzilla, to name a few. There will be total of more than 100 different T-shirts designed by 40 renowned artists. Artworks, books, CDs, and other merchandise will be sold on premise together with T-shirts.

Every t-shirt has been commissioned from 40+ designers to communicate their vision of Modern Tokyo. It is truly unique to see such variety and breadth of vision on the same theme. The range of work from designers, photographers, painters, animators, graphic designers, illustrators, Japanese woodblock printers, traditional Japanese stencil patternmakers and many more “on exhibit” in this gallery-like space at the center of the new store will bring this vision to life.

TIMING :

The T-shirt gallery will be set up when the flagship store opens. The T-shirts will be exclusively sold at the NY store during fall/winter 2006 season, after will be sold throughout UNIQLO stores around the world.