Why Anna Wintour is suddenly loving Gap and Uniqlo
Something very curious is happening to what we used to call the “high street” in Britain and, indeed, the world – and Anna Wintour wants us to take notice. The most powerful woman in fashion is openly championing two mass-market brands she might once have dismissed without a second glance: Gap and Uniqlo.
While in London for the British Fashion Awards, Anna – between attending The Devil Wears Prada musical and breezing through the immersive Vogue: Inventing The Runway exhibition – found time to praise Gap and Uniqlo for their new creative direction. The reason? They’ve hired famed luxury designers to head their studios: former catwalk wunderkind Zac Posen is now at Gap, and Clare Waight Keller – formerly of Chloe, Ralph Lauren and Givenchy Couture, where she created Meghan Markle’s wedding dress – is leading Uniqlo.
Anna says Gap and Uniqlo now “understand the power and importance of creativity”. Translation: they’re making clothes that look like something we’d all want to wear, rather than an itchy, vaguely catwalk-inspired knockoff. And that’s progress.
It’s really quite the pivot. Not so long ago, Gap and Uniqlo were holding hands at the bottom rung of affordable fashion, flanked by H&M and Zara, creating, as Anna puts it, “basic fashion”. When Shein, PrettyLittleThing and Primark stormed in, these ultra-fast-fashion juggernauts didn’t just lower the bar; they buried it.
In response, the old guard has taken the glossier, more design-led road to occupy the new place in the market they accidentally find themselves in.
The teams at Gap and Uniqlo are reshaping their offer towards more thoughtful, well-designed fashion, and creating their own design ethos – the kind you might love and keep for more than one season. It could be seen as #hautewashing, sure, but by offering good design, this in turn inspires people to choose well – and if the upshot is that we wear their clothes for longer, it’s a huge step forward.
At Gap, Zac Posen has started small. His first “Get loose” campaign, promoting slouchy jeans (the only jeans to be seen in right now, if you care about these things), went viral. He’s introduced a US-only collaboration with Cult Gaia, another with responsible brand Dôen and, so far, has dropped one design attributed directly to him – a pretty, 100% organic cotton white shirtdress.
Meanwhile, over at Uniqlo, Clare Waight Keller has created the “Uniqlo: C” collection. First launched in September 2023, the range of boxy coats, considered knits and slouchy shirtdresses did so well, she’s designed two more collections and is now running the design studio. Her mission? To bring an “edited eye” to the brand.
Is this actual progress or are these brands just putting A-list names on polyester? The jury’s out. The truth is, the real power lies with us. To engage with the new high street vibe in the most responsible way, we must buy natural, recyclable fibres; avoid anything oil-based; and, for the love of Anna, pick clothes you’ll wear more than 30 times. With Clare and Zac steering their respective ships, this could go somewhere good. Or it could be a very chic blip. Either way, I’m keeping my one navy Uniqlo cashmere on permanent standby – just in case.
Melanie Rickey is the founder of @theenoughness and host of The Enoughness With Melanie Rickey podcast.
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