Fast Retailing signs consulting contract with fashion designer Jil Sander

Fast Retailing Co Ltd on Tuesday announced that it has signed a consulting contract with German luxury brand designer Jil Sander to supervise the company's low-price brand Uniqlo's apparel products. Sander will check the full range of existing Uniqlo products to improve their designs as needed while developing a new line of products. Sander-designed Uniqlo products are expected to hit the shelves in the fall and winter seasons this year.

Tadashi Yanai, chairman and CEO of Fast Retailing, said, “Our mission is to provide wonderful clothes to everyone in the world. Truly good clothes can be even for the rich, the poor, people in London, Paris, the countryside in Texas and China.”

Sander said, “I would like to do something completely different. I always have passion for quality and purity. The challenge for me is to establish premium quality in a democratically priced brand. We will put more value (in Uniqlo's products).”

Sander said she has launched her own consultation company, Jil Sander Co, with Fast Retailing Co Ltd as her first client. The contract length and consultation fee were not disclosed.

The new products are scheduled to be released for the autumn and winter season this year, the company said.

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