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UNIQLO Piazza Cordusio opens its doors and unveils the store where LifeWear, art, design, nature, culture and sustainability pay homage to Milan and where east meets west.
The UNIQLO store in Piazza Cordusio is a union of elements that come from different worlds and coexist to improve the quality of life.
Starting from the concept of LifeWear, UNIQLO Identified local partners who share the same philosophy, challenging arts, nature, culture and sustainability.
A minimal approach and continuous research, is the meeting point between UNIQLO and Odd Garden. “Static Wave” was born by a common mission: increase the quality of people’s lives, not just through the creation of installations, gardens or terraces, but also by educational processes in order to respect the environment and the nature. Typical plants of the Japanese gardens and of the Milanese terraces will meet in the center of Milan, creating a multicolored static wave.
Art, nature and installations
Thanks to its commitment to sustainability and innovation, UNIQLO has successfully reduced up to 99% the water used in the jeans manufacturing process. On occasion of the opening of the first UNIQLO store in Italy, One Block Down presents an installation entitled “Water is more precious than gold.” Pieces of recycled denim from the free hemming service that the store offers to its customers were sewn together with a patchwork effect using the Japanese boro technique.
Milanese artist Olimpia Zagnoli’s installation, certainly one of the largest ever seen in a store, is a composition inspired by the windows of Milan. Olimpia has combined the multitude of architectural styles and turned them into a potentially infinite pattern.
She has borrowed the vocabulary of UNIQLO, made of simple shapes and bold colors, with an eye to design and the other to people. All these elements can be found in the illustrations, from the items inspired by author’s design to the real protagonists of the city: the Milanese
Tsuchi is the Japanese name for ground, a key element of our planet and a source of life. The ground is the material that best represents the principles of bio-architecture thanks to its reduced environmental impact and its benefits in terms of health. The technique of Tsuchikabe (literally sand wall) involves the use of local clays, siliceous sands and rice straw. Uniqlo brought to Italy Japanese masters in order to create a wall that represents sustainability.
The ability to adapt and understand the environment and the available materials, allows to create harmonious projects according to the Zen style. Besides these collaborations, the UNIQLO store will exhibit a selection of key products from renown local brands that will available for purchase. Maruni, Medea, Rossignoli and Seletti, have been chosen as partners because they are in line with the UNIQLO philosophy and aesthetic expression. Additionally, in collaboration with Museo d’arte orientale collezione Mazzocchi, the UNIQLO store will display the famous notebooks of Hokusai, the greatest Japanese artist of the 18th century.
UNIQLO LIFEWEAR CONCEPT
Apparel that comes from the Japanese values of simplicity, quality and longevity. Designed to be of the time and for the time, LifeWear is made with such modern elegance that it becomes the building blocks of each individual’s style. A perfect shirt that is always being made more perfect. The simplest design hiding the most thoughtful and modern details. The best in fit and fabric made to be affordable and accessible to all. LifeWear is clothing that is constantly being innovated, bringing more warmth, more lightness, better design, and better comfort to people’s lives.
UNIQLO AND FAST RETAILING
UNIQLO is a brand of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., a leading Japanese retail holding company with global headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. UNIQLO is the largest of eight brands in the Fast Retailing Group, the others being GU, Theory, Helmut Lang, PLST (Plus T), Comptoir des Cotonniers, Princesse tam.tam and J Brand. With global sales of approximately 2.13 trillion yen for the 2018 fiscal year ending August 31, 2018 (US $19.17 billion, calculated in yen using the end of August 2018 rate of $1 = 111.1 yen), Fast Retailing is one of the world’s largest apparel retail companies, and UNIQLO is Japan’s leading specialty retailer. UNIQLO continues to open large-scale stores in some of the world’s most important cities and locations, as part of its ongoing efforts to solidify its status as a global brand. Today the company has more than 2,500 stores in 23 markets including Japan. In alphabetical order, the other markets are Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, U.K. and U.S. In addition, UNIQLO established a social business in Bangladesh together with the Grameen Bank in 2010, and today there are several Grameen-UNIQLO stores in Dhaka. With a corporate statement committed to changing clothes, changing conventional wisdom and change the world, Fast Retailing is dedicated to creating great clothing with new and unique value to enrich the lives of people everywhere.
di Francesca Zorzetto
by AN shopfitting magazine no.153 ©
