Fit to a T

ONE OF THE most popular of its lines with Thai fashonistas, Uniqlo’s eclectic t-shirt brand, UT, celebrated its 12th anniversary last week with the launch of its latest collections as well as a range of tees created in collaboration with Thai designers from home-grown brands Greyhound and Painkiller.

Set up in 2003 with the aim of making the T-shirt a much more interesting and versatile item of clothing, UT has featured a variety of themes and designs from pop culture in areas such as the arts, music, film, manga and animation.

The “New Model T” matches the ideal torso shape of T-shirt through a structural design without seams down the sides. This gives the UT tee a truly “round” shape, which is then adjusted to fit the different graphical designs on each model for enhanced modern appeal.

More than 250 designs from a total of 1,200 in the 2015 UT range were displayed at the launch event, much to the delight of the brand’s dedicated fans. Five highlight collections – SPRZ NY, Kabuki, Disney Project, Music Icon, and Line – were also featured in their own booths.

“SPRZ NY – Surprise New York” collection is inspired by the biggest and most influential names in contemporary art, an intersection of art and fashion made possible through the joint efforts of Uniqlo and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The end result is a range of artful UT tees that stand out with distinctive pop-art designs. The project boasts the works of world-class artists from many genres and movements – including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Jackson Pollock and Yayoi Kusama.

The Shochiku Kabuki X Uniqlo collection presents one of Japan’s traditional performance arts, kabuki, through the contemporary medium of T-shirt design in a reflection of Japanese art and culture. T-shirts in this range are adorned with designs inspired by kabuki performers’ intricate costumes and face makeup.

One of the brand’s most popular collections, “Disney Project” features cartoon characters including timeless icons like Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Winnie the Pooh as well as the entire Pixar family.

Fashionistas and music aficionados cannot afford to miss out on the “UT Music Icon” collection, which features patterns and designs reflecting the identities of various musical legends across genres and ages.

The “Line” collection boasts the iconic characters Brown, Moon, and Cony in bright, stylish designs – and has been created just for Line fans around the globe.

Additionally, for Thai fashionistas, Uniqlo launches a special new UT collection created jointly with two designers from leading brands Greyhound and Painkiller. With designs under “Feel the SEA” concept, this special range is guaranteed to give fans hours of mix-and-match joy. Greyhound contributed its Twist Wording techniques into a UT T-shirt graphic to allow some room for distinctive designs, while Painkiller combined its high-street design with Uniqlo T-shirts’ quality fabrics and shapes through a colourful summer graphic design for the wearer to craft into their very own look. And the collaborations don’t stop there. Fans of Thailand’s Asava, Issue and Disaya brands should head to Uniqlo’s newest branch at EmQuartier branch for tees from a special range of limited-edition T-shirts under the “LifeWear concept”. They’re available with every Bt2,500 spent at this branch in a |promotion that wraps on Sunday.

Polpat Asavaprapha, the mastermind behind Asava, chose to combine horizontal white-red-blue stripes, horse sketches, and geometric prints together with a barrage of colours that reflects Asava’s standout elements for minimalist look. Meanwhile, Bhubawit Kritpholnara of Issue translated the LifeWear philosophy into a design that addresses a wider range of potential wearers and lifestyles. The use of tiger prints gives the design a strong and fresh character.

And Disaya Sorakraikitikul of Disaya fame contributed to the collection with T-shirts featuring images of pigtailed girls. Utilising a special printing technique, the resulting imagery has a light, watercolour-like texture not unlike that of illustrations for Japanese fables.