BIG BREAKUP: Fall To Be The Final Season For UNIQLO & Jil Sander's +J

It's sad news today for Jil Sander and UNIQLO fans. WWD reports that the German designer and the Japanese mega-chain have agreed to go their separate ways after this Fall's +J collection. According to a company release, "Ms. Sander and [Uniqlo] agreed that they had fully explored the possibilities of their creative collaboration and accomplished what they had set out to do."

So basically, they just got sick of each other.
It happens. Perhaps the designer tired of working under a strict price structure and longed for Italian cashmere, or maybe the chain wearied of explaining to Sander why she couldn't work with $50 per yard fabrics. Ultimately, when two entities who famously like things the way they like them get together, friction is bound to happen at some point. Or maybe Sander, who came out of non-compete enforced retirement to work with Uniqlo, decided that she kind of liked not working too much after all. Maybe she just got sick of flying to Tokyo.

The Shophound had been looking forward to what we were expecting would be a substantial +J presentation when the chain's immense Fifth Avenue flagship opens this Fall, especially after it was announced last year that the collection would be ongoing label for Uniqlo. Apparently, though Sander was intended to oversee all of Uniqlo's men's and women's apparel lines, she really only focused on her own collection, which experienced a noticeable price jump in the most recent season that threatened to push it further out of the chain's mass market category.

At any rate, all good things must come to an end, and even though we couldn't fit into half the items in the slender-cut collection, we still looked forward to each new +J delivery. We'll be saving up for the final collection hitting stores this Fall. The good news is that by the time it gets released, there will be two, possibly three Uniqlos in New York, so the crowds will hopefully be lighter on those busy first days.

Jil Sander, Uniqlo Part Ways (WWD)