UNIQLO today announces a collaboration line between UT (UNIQLO T-shirts) and the artist KAWS. Since its launch in 2003, UT has featured an array of pop culture graphics in such collaborations as SPRZ NY and the Shochiku Kabuki series. The new KAWS collection celebrates UT’s fusion of fashion with authentic pop culture.
KAWS is a renowned artist who cut his creative teeth on the streets of New York, his subversive images winning him considerable notoriety. Today, some of the world’s most renowned museums and galleries collect and exhibit his critically acclaimed artwork.
UNIQLO is committed to changing the world for the better through the power of clothing. UT is part of LifeWear, a concept first introduced in 2003 and which embodies a quest to enhance individual lifestyles by delivering quality clothing that is functional in design and versatile to wear.
Commenting on the new collaboration, KAWS said, “I have always enjoyed working in different medium, whether it be plastic toys, painting, bronze sculpture, or graphic design. UT is a cool canvas for making my artwork available to people virtually everywhere. I have enjoyed working with the UNIQLO team whose enthusiasm is unparalleled. It is great to be part of the amazing UT platform of my friend and fellow artist NIGO.”
UT Creative Director NIGO said, “KAWS has been a friend of mine for more than 20 years, and I’m very happy to collaborate with him for our 2016 UT items. I’m certain that the collection will be a hit around the world. I’ve created things with KAWS quite a few times before, and we’ve got a lot of respect for each other. This project was no exception. We went through a ton of ideas to come up with some great results. I think the T-shirts and other items in the collection reflect KAWS’s amazing worldview.”
About KAWS
Brooklyn-based, KAWS is considered one of the most relevant artists of his generation. Within the Pop Art tradition, he has created a prolific body of influential work, which both engages young people with contemporary art and straddles the worlds of art and design to include street art, graphic and product design, paintings, murals and large-scale sculptures.
KAWS developed a passion for popular culture in art and design early in life and studied illustration at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan in the early 1990s. By then he was already well versed in graffiti, having frequently tagged walls and freight trains with the letters K A W S. KAWS continued developing his visual vocabulary conceiving his soft skull with crossbones and crossed-out eyes, which would become a signature gesture. After college, he worked as a freelancer for animation studios, which further catalyzed his appropriation of iconic characters from popular culture and comic books.
KAWS currently has a solo exhibition, “ALONG THE WAY” at the Brooklyn Museum, and a major exhibition at England’s Yorkshire Sculpture Park, while a survey exhibition of his work will open at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in the fall.
About UNIQLO LifeWear
Apparel that comes from the Japanese values of simplicity, quality and longevity. Designed to be of the time and for the time, LifeWear is made with such modern elegance that it becomes the building blocks of each individual’s style. A perfect shirt that is always being made more perfect. The simplest design hiding the most thoughtful and modern details. The best in fit and fabric made to be affordable and accessible to all. LifeWear is clothing that is constantly being innovated, bringing more warmth, more lightness, better design, and better comfort to people’s lives.
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