Well, I did say Wednesday is pretty much glum all round. To further add to the glumness, Uniqlo, one of my favourite stores for basics (half the price of Gap with much nicer designs – what’s not to like!) has asked designers to design capsule collections for them and the most prominent designers are Nicholas Andreas Taralis and haute couturier Felipe Oliveira Baptista. So what’s the problem you might ask? I phoned up the UK head office and sadly, none of these pieces will be making it over to the stores here. The person I spoke to didn’t even know anything about the collections and just said that the stuff they stocked in the UK was different from the stuff they stocked in Japan – most helpful indeed…..
The thing I like about these capsule collections is that the designers have stuck to Uniqlo’s clean, somewhat basic but still interesting school of thinking. It’s not like these designers are under any pretentions that they can create something fantastic out of not a lot of money so they have gone with fluid, clean-cut design that still has a little edge that has the quality that I so love Uniqlo for.
The Felipe Oliveira Baptista is already in stores and online in Japan. My favourite piece is the belted loose dress. It hurts even more when you convert the Japanese yen prices back into pounds – the dress comes in at a bargain price of £18!
Nicholas Andreas Taralis has been quietly impressing me in the last few seasons with his skinny sillhouettes and I think the collection he has designed for Uniqlo has a lot of the trademark elements that he demonstrated at the A/W06 show. The skirts are especially lovely and again, one of these black tulip skirts equals £22! Ok, I’ll stop torturing myself now.
Oh, and please, if there are any New Yorkers out there and you manage to spot some of this stuff in the NYC Soho store, please DON’T tell me – because that’ll just depress me more!
they don’t ship internationally? i really like that first felipe dress. 🙁
Hey, I’m going to Japan in November :p
Hope they’re still stocking it until then!
I’m liking the first dress too – reminds me of Chloe FW06.
But the two shades of green are too army-ish for my liking & the black makes the dress seem a tad nondescript. Still, can’t complain for £19 something!
I will check the Soho store, but don’t worry I won’t tell you. I wouldn’t want you to be terribly jealous.
on the west coast of the united states we dont have anything…not even h&m’s (at least for a short while longer). those outfits are sublime.
I like the first and the second picture~ why don’t they stock it in london?=(
Hey, maybe a kind reader can offer you a version of your Miss UPS service – they can buy and ship stuff for you and you pay them!
I ab fabsolutely love your blog! You are a wealth of fashion info! Your like a FASHIONYCLOPEDIA! Where do you get the low down on things!
Anyhow, just wanted to say that. I discovered your blog in teen vogue magazine. Just thought I’d check it out and LOVED IT!
hi have been reading your post for 4mths now and its been my salvation here in tokyo where i find it so hard to get clothes (I’m not petite! and Large is still tiny for me!!!
if you want i can get the uniglo items for u, i went to the store today and they are selling it tomorrow. I can send it to you first and you can paypal me once you receive.
if you’re a US size 4 get a medium, if US6 large and beyond that, good luck…….
these will be available in Hong Kong. Ask your friends/family here to get for you?
hey when are these pieces set to release? they’re fantastic, but i haven’t seen them in the soho store either although the current one is quite small and there is supposed to be a bigger one opening in sept so maybe they’ll have them then
You’d have to calculate if the price was worth it, but to order from any Japanese online store, you can use crescent trading: http://www.crescent-shop.com/
Here in Sydney, there’s no Uniqlo at all… *sigh*
I’m trying to convince my husband that since he’s a Japanese-speaking marketing dude he should open Uniqlo in Australia and give me a job wearing their clothes to fabulous parties to promote it. No luck so far but I’m still working on him! 😉
StColaPop: Fashion encyclopedia? Moi? I don’t think so…. !
Phatti: The Baptista stuff is available in Japan now. Again I’m not sure whether it’s available in the US… but since the new NYC Soho store is gonna be the GLOBAL flagship store, I would assume SOMETHING would be stocked. The Taralis collection is coming later in September I think.
Cabby: Thanks so much for the link! It’s a bit pricy to use but I might just do it if I order enough stuff from Uniqlo.
Bargain Queen: I’m surprised Uniqlo hasn’t expanded to Australia yet…. their ‘basics’ approach would be so convenient for the laidback lifestyle of Aussies.
i love the coats… thank you for posting. am going to try and get a quote from crescent shop. sigh.
You’re all going to hate me, but I bought the Baptista black trench at Uniqlo yesterday in their Ginza shop, and it’s fabulous. Yup, I live in Japan, but you have to remember that over here, we got tortured last year by the Stella McCartney collection for H&M that we couldn’t access from Tokyo, and before that the Karl Lagerfield collection for the same store. I hope you all get your hands on some more of that type of thing to compensate.
Happy shopping.
Hello Susie!
It *is* available in the UK, I’ve seen it! Have you checked the store in person?
These are also available in the HK store — I’ve been debating whether or not to get them. it’s all love!