Top Story: 31. January 2006
UNIQLO: Fine offbeat clothing from Japan
UNIQLO has became a trend among youth, especially from it's casual style wear. It's fore and foremost cheap, but the cloth you buy from here are mostly above medium quality. UNIQLO has recently became famous in Europe as well due to their UK stores, opened in 2001.
"If the clothes shout louder than the person, the person cannot be heard", said Tadashi Yanai, founder and CEO of UNIQLO. This represents well the brand idea of UNIQLO. In Japan there has been a long time need for this since the clothing market has been tightly brand oriented. Young people seeking for their latest Porter's bags might nowadays check UNIQLO.
In UNIQLO's style you can feel that they are not trying to tell you what to wear or how to wear. You are the one who's in charge. This is the brand for young people in Japan who want to be independent and just themselves, and who don't want to spend a lot for clothing.
Clothes in UNIQLO are stylish and minimalistic, introducing few Andy Warhol's designs and recent European, American and Japanese designers' t-shirt designs. The low cost is somehow relative, in UK the cost isn't as cheap as in Japan. Naturally the selection is best in Japanese shops. This is the shop where Japanese students buy their clothes. Corduroy, stone washed denims, velvet blazers, washed blazers and coloured chambray trousers are just few examples what you may get from here.
Cheap clothes are not all what UNIQLO offers though. Cashmere, Italian merino, lambswool and silk are also part of their selection, still quite affordable price. Also, people seeking for high class clothing sometimes wander in here.
As their website boldly states, UNIQLO's commitment is to offer highest quality in lowest possible price. This is pretty much true. Our crew here in Hanami Web have been used UNIQLO clothes over years and never witnessed a breakage in seams. Collar shirts usually have spare buttons sewed to their hem, and the material simply lasts virtually forever.
About their customer service we would sometimes disagree. Often it happens that there are no personnel around, and after one wanders around, he or she can't often suggest an alternative if the piece of cloth you are looking for is not found. Afterall, "we won't tell you what to wear or how to wear it" is true, it seems. But it would be nice if they would know what they are selling. Plus they should market their free in-store trouser alterations service. Once I was shopping for trousers there, they never said a word about such a possibility. It was for me to discover this from their website later.
We recommend UNIQLO.
