NEEDLES Made the Cardigan Great. UNIQLO Makes It for Everyone
At this point, UNIQLO collaborations are their own genre. The mass-market retailer has become the anti-fast-fashion fast fashion brand because it plays both sides offering both vast global output and thoughtful designer partnerships.
For example, with NEEDLES, the Nepenthes-owned Japanese label best known for its butterfly-logo track pants and patchwork 7-cut flannels, UNIQLO has created a particularly suave seasonal set anchored by a fresh variation of NEEDLES' signature loose-cut cardigan.
The resulting collection brings NEEDLES steeze and far-reaching UNIQLO appeal, equally faithful to both label's established codes.
NEEDLES has never been more accessible but its pieces still carry an aura of insider cool. Its perpetually popular mohair cardigans, track pants, patchwork flannels, and baggy cargo pants have long formed the uniform of famously stylish folks like A$AP Rocky and Jungkook, clothes that're as cool as they are plainly approachable.
So, NEEDLES’ garments fold into UNIQLO’s universe neater than one may think.
This collaborative collection doesn't go quite as far as NEEDLES' own seasonal offerings, which encompass '70s-ish flared suits and grungy '90s sweats, but it does hit the big points.
The lynchpin is a fleece cardigans that reads as a more utilitarian take on NEEDLES' signature mohair layer and it's accompanied by track pants, striped knits, and loose tailoring embellished with NEEDLES’ butterfly, or papillon, logo.
It’s all loose and insulated, with everything priced within UNIQLO’s democratic range and available from UNIQLO’s website come October 10.
This is business as usual for UNIQLO. The Japanese casual-wear label already has Lemaire on staff, JW Anderson onboard for the long haul, and collaborations with Engineered Garments, White Mountaineering, and Cactus Plant Flea Market that flex UNIQLO's range across fashion’s spectrum.
The trick is in how UNIQLO meets its collaborators in the middle. It extrapolates familiar elements into all-purpose anytime utility. This collection is as good a case study as any, because it's simply NEEDLES simplified, not diluted.
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