There's been a lot of talk about the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in the press recently, and how many of the upmarket brands which once ruled supreme in Japan are now struggling. However, there are still businesses which are doing well. Actually UNIQLO (pronounced "yu-ni-ku-ro") is one of the big success stories in the Japanese fashion industry. More recently they have been moving into markets abroad with stores in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, UK, France, US, Singapore and Russia.(1)
UNIQLO operate their own stores selling their own brand of clothing. The parent company's name is "Fast Retailing", think of it like taking the fast food concept to casual fashion. They offer low cost, yet well made clothes in fast changing fashions.(2,3)
The thing I love about UNIQLO are the sheer number of colours available for the basic items, such as T-Shirts, Sweaters, Shirts, Jeans, socks, gloves, etc.(4) You almost always can find something to match something else! Unfortunately the range of sizes is where they cut back, so if your any bigger than Japanese XL for shirts (M in Australian sizes) you're out of luck at UNIQLO. Plus they only have one size for socks and gloves, which are too small for me. Fortunately I fit Japanese XL shirts, the only problem is at the low prices and good quality it's always tempting to buy a few colours! I have to keep in mind that in Japan I don't have much space in my house!
Note 19/07/2010: Had another particularly busy two weeks, haven't had time to post on pbase, but still had a chance to take a few photos. I will try to look at others' shots over the next few days and post some comments - James
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniqlo
2. http://www.insideretailing.com.au/Latest/tabid/53/ID/885/Uniqlo-the-generic-brand-with-mass-appeal.aspx
3. http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/global-competition-speeding-up-in-fast-fashion
4. http://nymag.com/fashion/features/65898/