Uniqlo (Glorietta 5)

Jap label opens 6^th outlet

By Demi Braque

Japanese apparel brand opened its latest store at the Glorietta 5 Mall in Ayala Center Makati recently. “This is the 6^th Uniqlo store that we’ve opened. It’s slightly smaller in floor area when compared to the other branches. This branch caters to the Ayala Center traffic.  We started with our flagship store in the Mall of Asia two years ago. Now, we have six. By the end of 2013, we will have eleven.

“Bottoms have remained to be our top-sellers alongside jeans and leggings. We will be coming up with a merchandise line that’s exclusively for Filipinos; something suited for the local climate. We will still continue to offer the Fall/Winter collection not so much for residents here but for those who’ll travel abroad. Our UT (universal t-shirt) collection will feature a line designed by a London-schooled Pinoy designer for the forthcoming Fall/Winter 2013 collection in september. These will be high-quality merchandise with affordable prices; unlike in Japan where products are either high-quality but expensive or highly-affordable but poor in quality.

“We at Uniqlo call our products ‘LifeWear’ because we believe that clothing should enhance your day-to-day life; not impede it. A full life requires, practically, innovation, smarts and the freedom of self-expression. That’s why our goal is to give you tools from which you can build your own style. You won’t find splashy logos or unneeded gimmicks on our clothing, just sophisticated practicality. The way you wear it and combine the pieces is up to you,” shared company COO Katsumi Kubota.

This year, new hues, patters and designs have been added to its range of lineups. With the quick-dry feature intact, the varieties of prints, collars, stripes and color blocks have grown tremendously, bringing new energy to the collections.

“Quality is the key to making such versatile clothing. Everything we produce is durable in both bold and nuanced ways, which we believe gives our garments a value beyond the superficiality of the usual clothing. It’s a collection of products that knows when to get out of the way to let you make your own decisions, but also knows just how and when a helping hand might be needed in the form of the perfect added feature or technological advancement.

“We will be opening another provincial branch very soon. We are still on target for our goal of opening 50 stores by 2015. At present, there are 300 Filipinos and nine Japanese under our employ. The past two years afforded us to generate a 20 per cent increase in revenue generation.” Katsumi-san declared at the close of an intimate colloquy with members of national broadsheet media.

The new Uniqlo outlet store is conveniently located at the ground floor of Glorietta 5, with ingress/egress points from within the mall and Ayala Avenue. Check out the Uniqlo Philippines fan page on Facebook and/or their Web site, www.uniqlo.com.