UNIQLO TOPGrown-Ups
for the Day
Uniqlo U
2021 Uniqlo U Spring & Summer Kid’s Collection
- Photography by Delphine Chanet
- Hair & Makeup by Pawel Solis
- Styling & Text by UNIQLO
- G’s Seersucker Sleeveless Dress (Uniqlo U)
This spring, Christophe Lemaire and his Paris design team mark the tenth season of Uniqlo U with their debut children’s collection.
What was their approach to this new world of clothes for kids?
Lemaire, who has experience as the artistic director of some of the world’s leading brands,
and Sarah-Linh Tran each discussed a specific item of children’s clothing and the concepts that went into the collection.
Sarah-Linh Tran
considers the dress
At Uniqlo U, we wanted to design dresses that kids would feel good wearing. We have three different styles, in light, breathable seersucker and AIRism cutton.
The roomy, billowy silhouettes make them very comfortable, with generously cut sleeves for ease of movement.
Featuring unique design details from our women's versions, they’re playful yet elegant, and quite cheerful.
- G’s Seersucker Sleeveless Dress (Uniqlo U)
- G’s Seersucker Sleeveless Dress (Uniqlo U)
Christophe Lemaire
considers the T-shirt
Every season, the Uniqlo U T-shirt gets a fresh update, and this time we made one for kids.
We drew from the archives to create a scaled-down version, in patterns and colours kids will love.
Our striped T-shirts have become almost iconic around the world, with fans from Paris to Tokyo.
We were excited to reproduce the stripes for kids. For all the T-shirts, we did need to make some small adjustments, but we were able to carry over lots of great features, like patch pockets.
- K's Striped Short Sleeve T-shirt (Uniqlo U)
- K's Striped Short Sleeve T-shirt
- K's Jersey Shorts (Uniqlo U)
- K's Striped Short Sleeve T-shirt (Uniqlo U)
- K's Striped Short Sleeve T-shirt
- K's Jersey Shorts (Uniqlo U)
- G's Seersucker Short Sleeve Dress (Uniqlo U)
- Boy: K's AIRism Cotton Crew Neck Short Sleeve T-shirt
- K's Jersey Shorts
- Girls: G’s Crew Neck Short Sleeve T-dress (Uniqlo U)
Creating a kid’s collection
for Uniqlo U
- by Christophe Lemaire
- Artistic Director of the UNIQLO Paris R&D Center
Until now we had yet to produce any kid’s styles for Uniqlo U, so when the Tokyo team proposed the idea, we were genuinely intrigued.
We started working out our ideas, and once the size samples were created, we got even more excited. Every detail was so well-defined, almost like on clothing for a doll, incredibly cute.
For this collection, we tried making kid’s clothes based on the Uniqlo U patterns we had designed for adults. Some materials and colours had to be adjusted, but it was a boon to discover that these designs worked equally well for kids. The key was determining how to size down the items we had already tailored for adults. The parameters of kid’s clothes are completely different from clothing for adults, but thanks to the painstaking efforts of the technical team, we were able to recreate the roomy feel of the adult garments in sizes for kids. They did such an extraordinary job.
Once we had samples ready, we rushed to put a photoshoot together and have kids test out the styles, which were even cuter than we had imagined.
We had such a great time putting these together, and we can’t wait to expand the kid’s collection in the future.
- K's AIRism Cotton Crew Neck Short Sleeve T-shirt (Uniqlo U)