She’s back! Former creative director of French fashion brands Chloé and Givenchy Clare Waight Keller has made her reappearance in fashion with a collaboration with Japanese fashion giant Uniqlo. Confirming the rumours yesterday, Uniqlo put out a series of short videos on Instagram teasing an introduction to Uniqlo C, which they touted as “a new chapter in style” with all “the sophistication of everyday”. The Uniqlo C fall/winter 2023 collection has been slated to launch in stores and online on 15 September.
“It started really organically,” Waight Keller told Vogue UK in an interview. “But in the end, it looked so strong as one story that we decided that maybe it could evolve into its own label.”
Of course, she looked to her best style hits from collections past for the label. Explaining her vision, the designer said that she wanted to bring the essence of what she does best “fluidity, movement, femininity” and “a little bit of this boy-meets-girl style, and the idea of attitude dressing.”
Uniqlo has partnered—and continues to partner—with some of the biggest names in fashion: Christophe Lemaire still regularly designs the Uniqlo U collection for the brand, while collaborators in the past have included Jil Sander, Marni, Undercover and JW Anderson. So it comes as no surprise that Waight Keller would be on their roster of designers to work with as well.
And if you’re a big fan of Waight Keller’s work, you’ll be pleased to hear that has also been revealed that the fall/winter 2023 collection is not a one-off—the designer already has spring/summer 2024 locked down, and is working on fall/winter 2024. Exciting times ahead!
Here, GRAZIA Singapore’s Beauty & Grooming Director—and Clare Waight Keller superfan—IDs all the references that Waight Keller revived from her style archive for the upcoming Uniqlo C capsule collection.