Christophe Lemaire is joining Uniqlo, the Japanese purveyor of colourful, well-designed basics, as artistic director of a new Uniqlo Paris R&D Centre. He will also design a new Uniqlo line, dubbed Uniqlo U. Previously, Lemaire (together with Sarah-Linh Tran, his partner in life and work) worked with Uniqlo on the brand’s “Uniqlo and Lemaire” collection. But the new design centre and line are reflective of a much deeper partnership. The first Uniqlo U collection will be unveiled during Paris couture week in early July and hit retail stores for the Autumn/Winter 2016 season. Lemaire will continue to design his namesake label.
“I am delighted to welcome Mr Christophe Lemaire as a member of the Uniqlo team. I have time and again been astonished by his outstanding talent in working together to create the Uniqlo and Lemaire collection. I look forward to seeing more of the innovations that he inspires, and I am confident that his tremendous experience and talent will thrive at Uniqlo,” said Tadashi Yanai, chairman, president and CEO of Fast Retailing, Uniqlo’s parent company.
The announcement is a significant step for both Uniqlo and Lemaire. It also tells a potent tale about fashion’s shifting tectonic plates. For 25 years, Christophe Lemaire has bobbed and weaved through the industry, interning with Lacroix, Saint Laurent and Mugler, designing under his own name for ten years before a decade-long stint with Lacoste, then resuscitating his label while he succeeded Jean Paul Gaultier as creative director at Hermès. The party line when he left Hermès after four years was that he wanted to focus on his own business. So, when Lemaire first signed with Uniqlo, it seemed logical enough to assume the result would be another of those heat-generating designer collaborations that blows up fast, cools down just as rapidly, and hopefully leaves its namesake with enough money to underwrite his continued independence. Except that’s not what happened.
“Uniqlo and Lemaire” did indeed blow up fast, so fast that Uniqlo had initially wanted to extend the collaboration for another season. But Mr Yanai had a grander plan: no mere collaboration, but a full-blown atelier; a research and development centre in Paris that Lemaire would staff and lead, building an entirely new design concept within the Uniqlo brand, a more refined version of the company’s “LifeWear” ethos — but integrated into the core offering, as opposed to some kind of “black label.” And, despite the timing of the offer, coming just as his own label was picking up a real head of steam, Lemaire said yes.
(Source: Business Of Fashion )