New York – Liberty London is popular for its brightly colored floral patterns and
unique, original designs. A certain Japanese fast-fashion brand by the name
of Uniqlo has taken notice, and now they have done a collaboration together.
Liberty London and Uniqlo worked together to come up with designs that
would fit both Liberty London’s longstanding form of design and Uniqlo’s
LifeWear philosophy of Simple Made Better. The collaboration combines
Liberty’s floral styles with a number of Uniqlo’s styles and silhouettes to
create a contemporary aesthetic that will appeal to the Uniqlo customer.
The new collection was shot by acclaimed fashion photographer Nick Knight.
Knight has won numerous awards for his work in publications including
Vogue, Dazed and Confused, i-D, The Face, W, Arena Homme +, and
Visionaire. He also worked on the 2004 edition of the Pirelli Calendar.
Uniqlo also worked with CHAOS Fashion, a partnership between Garage
Magazine fashion director Charlotte Stockdale and Katie Styall, for the
creative concept for the project.
Coming up with this collaboration was no easy feat. Last fall, merchants
and designers from Uniqlo spent 48 hours meeting with Liberty’s team to try
and select the perfect prints for the collection. The total number of
fabrics and patterns in Liberty’s archive is around 42,000, so curating
through those for a 28-piece collection was rigorous.
The collection will launch in the U.K. on March 18, and then globally on
March 24.
Liberty’s managing partner Ed Burstell was thrilled at the prospect of
broader global reach that they would have thanks to the collaboration.
“Half of our profits as a business comes from fabric, which we design and
sell to the world,” Burstell said to WWD. “So if you’re with a partner who
has 1,700 stores, that explodes your global awareness and that will equal
more fabric sales around the globe.”
Burstell is hoping that having access to Uniqlo’s approximately 300 stores
in China will help boost their presence in that market where they usually
don’t do a lot of business. He also believes that being tied to the Uniqlo
name will also help Liberty’s overall global presence, and make them appear
more accessible.
Price points for the Uniqlo and Liberty London collaboration range from 7
dollars and 90 cents for leggings to 39 dollars and 90 cents for a dress.
photo:courtesy of HL Group