nothing special
I told my sister of Uniqlo's impending arrival on our sunny shores, and she was like, "Oh, nice, but the stuff is nothing special is it?"
I thought of this as I surfed through the web this afternoon, half-working. Bored with the half-work, I decided to check out what I would be missing out between now and next August.
The Hong Kong site left me uninspired and vaguely depressed - the clothes were poorly presented (the "style book" is absent of actual style) and the selection of things besides the polo tees etc) was limited. And I was told that our selection would be similar to the HK stores. Eek. My visits to Uniqlo in Shanghai and the UK were never that depressing.
The Japan site was comprehensive - it had everything HK had, and more. I was encouraged that the items offered on the HK site looked MUCH better on the Japanese site, and I saw quite a few things I liked -
The US site was by far the best - excellent styling, and the designs appeared to be different.
I've read about all the hoo-haa leading up to the opening of the American stores - the company is SERIOUS about breaking into the market there. It shows in the website.
Anyway, about my sister's "nothing special" comment, I decided that in terms of becoming a shopping "destination", the way going to Topshop feels like an event (sometimes), Uniqlo isn't quite like that. But I'm actually somewhat perked by shops like these - shops stocking simple clothes that look incredibly different from one person to another. Places like this are not about the "something special", it's so that I can find something reliable (but not dull) to wear all my other slightly more exciting things with. Simple is so hard to find.
Muji and Gap, Topshop and H&M (the simpler items), and (when I feel rich) Isabel Marant and A.P.C. - these are places where I usually end up buying something I wear for ages. So the point of this long ramble is that I'm pretty excited about all these unexciting-looking clothes.
Pictures of clothes from http://store.uniqlo.com/jp/; picture of lookbook for Uniqlo US from http://www.uniqlo.com/us/
I thought of this as I surfed through the web this afternoon, half-working. Bored with the half-work, I decided to check out what I would be missing out between now and next August.
The Hong Kong site left me uninspired and vaguely depressed - the clothes were poorly presented (the "style book" is absent of actual style) and the selection of things besides the polo tees etc) was limited. And I was told that our selection would be similar to the HK stores. Eek. My visits to Uniqlo in Shanghai and the UK were never that depressing.
The Japan site was comprehensive - it had everything HK had, and more. I was encouraged that the items offered on the HK site looked MUCH better on the Japanese site, and I saw quite a few things I liked -
The US site was by far the best - excellent styling, and the designs appeared to be different.
I've read about all the hoo-haa leading up to the opening of the American stores - the company is SERIOUS about breaking into the market there. It shows in the website.
Anyway, about my sister's "nothing special" comment, I decided that in terms of becoming a shopping "destination", the way going to Topshop feels like an event (sometimes), Uniqlo isn't quite like that. But I'm actually somewhat perked by shops like these - shops stocking simple clothes that look incredibly different from one person to another. Places like this are not about the "something special", it's so that I can find something reliable (but not dull) to wear all my other slightly more exciting things with. Simple is so hard to find.
Muji and Gap, Topshop and H&M (the simpler items), and (when I feel rich) Isabel Marant and A.P.C. - these are places where I usually end up buying something I wear for ages. So the point of this long ramble is that I'm pretty excited about all these unexciting-looking clothes.
Pictures of clothes from http://store.uniqlo.com/jp/; picture of lookbook for Uniqlo US from http://www.uniqlo.com/us/
Comments
uniqlo, for me, is okay in very very small doses. h&m too, but h&m has a few good wacky things, and uniqlo has a few good simple simple things.