Uniqlo x Christophe Lemaire

The yellow dress is ugly in an attractive way.. :glare:.. kind of just works with very specific roadtrip scenery.. enter urbanity and enter corny pregnant style territory.

I always see the lookbooks and start to wonder if things have gotten maybe a little too insipid.. months later I try it on just for the sake of it and end up buying it because it actually feels good and I love the way it looks.. I enjoy this kind of non-promising consistency.. zero interest to wow or trigger desperate must-have-it-now buttons.

Also the bodysuits look so nice, I hope they come in more colors...
 
OK, the photography there is REALLY good, IMO.

The menswear looks rather "basic", but "basic" in a Christopher Lemaire x Uniqlo collection isn't such a bad thing, esp. after considering whatsisface's hamfisted attempt at menswear. I'm sold.

Thanks for the link(s), maimon.
 
This looks almost better than his own collection.
 
I saw the pieces at a press preview waaaaay back. The quality is incredible. Apparently Christophe has his own Uniqlo team who are working directly with Uniqlo's production to get the best out of their factories. And it shows.

For women the highlights are the sweater dresses and a Miyake-like padded down coat. There's also a wool-blended sweatshirt material that feels incredible and is super light. They have it in a dress and a hoodie. Lots of fun, 80's shapes in modern light fabrics.

For men it's the overcoat which is very similar to his own line but rather than make it cheaper they just used a more utilitarian fabric. It's beautifully finished inside. And then there's a pant which fits like Comme des Garcons basic men's pant but is... and I am dead serious... a lot better made. Has a matching jacket that kinda looks like Yohji. Not in a copycat way, more in a "why isn't anyone else doing high-quality, sophisticated, well-made basics?" kinda way.

Men's is maybe better than women's but both are quite good.

The flat images online don't do the clothes justice. Makes COS, ARKET and Zara feel a bit cheap.
 
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The women’s collection is brimming with potential for the wearer to make it all her own and still come off dramatic and understated. If I were a woman, i’d be all over those pleated pieces… and the blanket coats, the ribbed pieces, the cascading tee/shirt dresses…. Even the hoodie is devastatingly understated and chic. So much understated goodness.

I was hoping for some of the simple but sleek flair he displayed for his own label’s men’s designs would be available here, at least for the jackets. Instead… everything looks awfully frumpy: Too basic, roley-poley homely and I despise patch-pockets: looks like clothes for the elderly. Not my preference at all.

Thanks everyone for all the images and info.
 
The women’s collection is brimming with potential for the wearer to make it all her own and still come off dramatic and understated. If I were a woman, i’d be all over those pleated pieces… and the blanket coats, the ribbed pieces, the cascading tee/shirt dresses…. Even the hoodie is devastatingly understated and chic. So much understated goodness.

I was hoping for some of the simple but sleek flair he displayed for his own label’s men’s designs would be available here, at least for the jackets. Instead… everything looks awfully frumpy: Too basic, roley-poley homely and I despise patch-pockets: looks like clothes for the elderly. Not my preference at all.

Thanks everyone for all the images and info.

Don't worry, the flat images are decieving. The men's is as you'd like it. The patch pocket jacket looks like a Yohji, like how Lemaire handles workwear in his own collection. They overstyled it a bit and everything is actually quite sharp.
 
all the speculation and long distance reassurance like it's the first collection... I think by now we all know how it goes, some of it will work wonders and it will very likely not be what you think it is in pictures and the piece that's your favorite is the least appealing one on the pictures, etc. And then there will be some real junk that will remain neglected in the sales corner and nobody will go for it not even at 5.99.

can't wait to check it out.. :meow:
 
^ so I checked it out :lol:.. as usual the stuff I thought I would love did nothing for me (blouses, knits) and what I thought would be the same ol' mess (gigantic pants that barely work on someone over 1.80) was perfect perfect.. the front crease pair in particular :heart:.. perfect length, waist height, volume, texture, weight, yeah. The boyfriend jeans are also amazing thanks to looking nothing like the standard boyfriend jeans.. only wish I had gotten them in more colors. Also got the chester coat.. sadly it's still 33 degrees outside.

The satin stuff feels yummy but why oh why did he have to go for the elastic band, that just turns the pajama feel into actual Hugh Hefner loungewear. Also wish he made cool dresses but especially skirts, shorter, sturdier.. even the pleated stuff has that untouchable 'pentecostal gathering' vibe.
 
^ so I checked it out :lol:.. as usual the stuff I thought I would love did nothing for me (blouses, knits) and what I thought would be the same ol' mess (gigantic pants that barely work on someone over 1.80) was perfect perfect.. the front crease pair in particular :heart:.. perfect length, waist height, volume, texture, weight, yeah. The boyfriend jeans are also amazing thanks to looking nothing like the standard boyfriend jeans.. only wish I had gotten them in more colors. Also got the chester coat.. sadly it's still 33 degrees outside.

The satin stuff feels yummy but why oh why did he have to go for the elastic band, that just turns the pajama feel into actual Hugh Hefner loungewear. Also wish he made cool dresses but especially skirts, shorter, sturdier.. even the pleated stuff has that untouchable 'pentecostal gathering' vibe.

Some of the fabrications changed from the press preview but overall I'm quite pleased. I saved my seasons budget for this and Yohji and neither have dissapointed.

I got both pants for men, as nicely cut as a pair of Yohjis of Lemaire's own line. Bought the coat which flows beautifully and is beautifully finished. Didn't care for knitwear. But i did love the sweatshirt which is the best on the market.
 
With the collection now in stores for some time and having done my purchases, I can safely say the Lemaire / Uniqlo collab has become more or less the only destination to buy from every season. I really do think the frame work of working with Uniqlo brings out the best in Christophe Lemaire's design efforts or at least it suits my needs better than his own line - Most of the U line feels to me like an elevated Carhartt if that makes any sense, workwear / utilitarian basics with the sensibility and sophistication of high fashion. I like how straight forward the clothes are and how each of these collections are conceived so that each piece can mix well with another (also throughout the seasons). It also works quite well to mix some of the men's with the women's for added choice at building silhouettes. There's a little bit of Comme and Yohji in the cuts but it also has that sportswear feel of Rick Owens' DRKSHDW line to it. I find all these designers mix well with Uniqlo U and as I already wore those before, I felt instantly at home here.

I'm inclined to agree the quality/price ratio is great, even though for the first time I felt disappointed with some of the fabric choices this season; the women's rayon satin fabric felt cheap, a lot of the knitwear had acrylic fibers blended in, so those fell through with me. All in all I still found a few pieces I end up wearing all the time since (2x men's cropped cavalry twill pants, women's cotton chinos, women's felted wool crop sweater), so I'm satisfied for the most part.
 
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After some seasons, I finally come to understand what works at U and which parts of the line I can comfortably skip on - The more tailored pieces (mostly jackets) tend to not fit quite as beautifully as the +J jackets and outerwear did and they are generally more on the unstructured, loose side which comes as no surprise as that's generally more Lemaire's liking in his own line as well. I really like the general feel of U being a bit loose and comfy without loosing that sense of Parisian 80ies elegance that Lemaire alongside Damir Doma, Samuel Drira and others brought back from Anne Marie Beretta.

To sum it up at best - I see U more as a refined way of casual dressing whereas +J thrived to bring some tailored accuracy and formalism to Uniqlo which it never quite had before.
 
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^ nooooo I’m waiting for the chester coat in navy to come back in s. damnit.

that looks yummy though, pretty palette.. thanks for posting!
 
By now I know I can entrust to find the kind of clothes at Uniqlo U that make sense to my everyday needs and that carry me through the day in the right balance of comfort and relaxed chicness that is very much Christophe Lemaire's thing. I hope they improved the cut on the their unstructured men's jackets because this season I could really see myself wanting to wear a workwear inspired suit in paper-y cotton, either in the cloud-y blue/grey-ish color or in classic khaki. I'm not such a big fan of the striped t-shirts and the acidic brights but the majority is lovely as usual.
 

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