Viewing UNIQLO'S Knitted Ambitions From An Art Exhibition

A $40 sweater may be showing the future ambitions of Japan's largest garment manufacturer, UNIQLO.

Hundreds of colored cotton wadding hung down from the top of the house in the Jeu de Paume National Museum in the center of Paris's durali garden. A 3D knitting machine is running back and forth in the effect of the laser device.

At the same scene as the modern art exhibition, UNIQLO built a "show ground" for knitwear.

This exhibition, called "The art and science of LifeWear", was opened to the public from from September 26th to 29th. It is also the first time that the company has held public oriented global events during the fashion week.

The art and science of LifeWear exhibition site

The art and science of LifeWear exhibition site

Starring

Not pass on to others what one is called upon to do.

It is made by 3D wholegarment full molding technology (hereinafter referred to as "WholeGarment technology"). This is the result of research and development jointly made by UNIQLO and Shima (Japan Seiki). Its biggest feature is that it has no stitched three-dimensional knitting, and the seam and thread can not be found on the clothes, and it can also make it easier for designers to meet the requirements of the edition.

UNIQLO used this technology in the Uniqlo U Series in 2017. This series is led by UNIQLO Paris research and development center, and designer Christophe Lemaire is responsible for it, but this product is only sold in some markets and stores.

In July 13, 2018, the fast retailing group of the UNIQLO parent company announced further cooperation with the island's fine machinery production to apply this knitting technology to more products.

At present, these commodities are also listed in the Chinese market.

People who are regarded as innovative clothing manufacturers are beginning to find new possibilities in knitting technology.

Nike has been fascinated by the innovation of knitting methods, such as lighten up.

The weight of Flyknit and sportsmen look more fashionable Pro Elite Knit.

UNIQLO realized the large-scale use of WholeGarment technology to produce clothes.

"Most of the things we wear are knitted (Textiles)."

Rebeccah Friedman, founder of Interwoven design studio, a fashion research and Innovation Institute based in New York, said that because it is the most basic thing in clothing production, its innovation is also very important.

UNIQLO and

Making more than 30 years of cooperation, until October 27, 2016, UNIQLO jointly established a Innovation Factory, located in Wakayama, southwest of Kyoto.

Develop and manufacture integrated molding products.

UNIQLO owns 49% of the shares, and the rest is made by the island's precision machine.

Traditional knitted garments require tailoring and sewing of raw materials, such as making a skirt with a wide outer skirt, cutting out the umbrella shaped fabric and then sewing it, so that the fabric is wasted and the efficiency is limited.

WholeGarment Technology

WholeGarment can be integrated into clothes by calculating data and programming.

Of course, this technology requires the toughness of cotton wool to be very good, because for example, there are some special processes to link the sleeves and the clothes to make the cotton wool toughness.

After its use in the Uniqlo U Series in 2017, UNIQLO, based on the designer's suggestions and consumer feedback, repeatedly adjusted WholeGarment technology with the island's precision machine production, and then made use of this line of garment in the popular product of the non designer cooperative series.

On the whole, this technology can help UNIQLO save some of its expenses.

Such a machine has certain technical thresholds for R & D and manufacturing, but when the marginal effect of scale is realized and the cost of materials and labor is reduced, the total production cost will be reduced.

UNIQLO is facing a large enough market, and its production scale can achieve such a technology in the popular products, and set an acceptable price range - a WholeGarment sweater price tag is about 40 U. S. dollars.

"Its price is not expensive, because we want to provide products to all people from this technological innovation."

Ryui Masa, President and chief executive officer of fast fashion group, founder and chairman of UNIQLO, said, "and we can even save the layout of clothing production and directly produce the clothes that consumers want."

The Japanese company and Ryui Masa's passion for technology have been well known.

In the old office of Liu well, there was a map of the United States, which was the new market he was eager to win. One of the Apple Store was tagged out, which means that it was a competition reference object.

To some extent, UNIQLO is built on technology.

UNIQLO listed a company in 1998.

Products, on the basis of existing production technology and technology changes, so that the fleece material in the market half of the price appear in their stores.

Two years later, 1/3 Japanese bought the UNIQLO fleece sweater.

At that time, Liu was also putting forward a strategy similar to that now, quickly locking up hot commodities and presenting them with fast production and acceptable prices.

The fleece was his first attempt.

Next, HEATTECH is the next technology.

15 years after its launch, UNIQLO announced that it had sold 1 billion HEATTECH products in 2017.

And the summer breathable AIRism and the same weight of a lightweight apple down jacket are also the continuation of such technological innovation logic.

But the technological innovation of UNIQLO is to achieve breakthroughs in functionality.

And if it portrays itself into a more stylish brand, it has to tell more stories.

UNIQLO has been trying to do this in recent years.

It changed the brand concept into "LifeWear service life", and launched a joint series with designers, and actively participated in the art field.

Uniqlo U series helped UNIQLO to enhance the brand image of fashion.

UNIQLO now needs to find a subtle connection between technology superiority and fashion sense.

Only in this way can we continue to accumulate technical barriers to trade, and at the same time, we can get rid of the objection that "all are basic funds".

To some extent, the reason why WholeGarment technology is valued by UNIQLO is such a "convergence".

WholeGarment technology is first used in the popular Uniqlo U series of UNIQLO. The biggest selling point of this series is the designer's version control.

"Because there is no suture, this technology can achieve the desired effect of the designer, such as the curve and radian of the skirt on the upper body."

Ikei Hiroshi, executive vice president of product development, told Kunni-san about interface news.

WholeGarment obviously has more space for fashion than the HEATTECH that shakes or wears.

It may be able to create a "shakes cashmere" story for uniqo in today's market.

In Ryui Masa's plan, this technology ultimately wants to meet the needs of on-demand.

One possible assumption is that consumers can place orders directly according to their physique, aesthetics and needs, and can be bought immediately after being produced by WholeGarment machines.

This mode of production is in line with Liu well's assumption of the future of UNIQLO.

"Google, Amazon and other new enterprises are expanding rapidly in the retail industry, and they are beginning to march into all walks of life.

In this era of change, what should we do in order to survive? "Ryui Masa once said in an internal message entitled" creating an unprecedented industry ".

From this he thought and put forward a plan of "Ming Ming".

The use of big data and other digital information technology to provide consumers with more accurate services and personalized products.

And give real-time sales, inventory management and supply chain control, and improve the flow from design to sales faster.

In addition to WholeGarment, in mid September, at the Cloud Next 2018 conference in Tokyo, Google also revealed that it was working with UNIQLO to launch a new AI plan to find technological drivers to accelerate business growth.

Japan economic news has also reported that Xun marketing group will formally introduce the mechanism of data analysis such as weather and fashion trends in the year to predict the quantity of commodities needed by AI.

In store inventory management and supply chain production, UNIQLO has made similar attempts in recent years to make the whole process more intelligent.

This series of attempts can build the final outcome of the "Ming Ming plan".

But John Jay's thinking may be a little more complicated than that.

He is global creative president of fast marketing group.

The task of John Jay is to tell a good story for these technologies, especially WholeGarment, which will be vigorously promoted.

UNIQLO, together with the creative agency Droga5 London office, produced three advertisements about steel band underwear, AIRism series and jeans technology.

In the commercials of the Autumn de Wilde shot for the stainless steel underwear, you seem to see the shadow of Wes Anderson director and her movie Budapest Hotel, the combination of retro costumes and scene colors, and dancer Ryan Heffington dancing in a plain shirt and underwear.

"How to tell a story about science and technology, today's exhibition in Paris is an example.

We show people the technological innovation behind the knitting process through the way of artistic display.

John Jay said to the interface news.

Before entering UNIQLO, he worked in W+K, a creative hot shop. His main client was Nike.

So John Jay should be good at spreading some strange technologies in a cool way.

At present, the exhibition in Paris seems to be doing well.

In addition to a variety of Instagram Hongbo master and Ines de la Fressange, which has been working with UNIQLO for many years, some people still see the Sarah Colette, the daughter of the founder and founder of Colette, who has just closed the doors of Colette shop in Paris.

"To tell the truth, we can tell more and better stories."

John Jay added.

Indeed, if UNIQLO wants to tell a good story with WholeGarment, this is just the beginning.