COLLABORATION ANTICIPATION: UU uniqlo undercover To Hit Stores On March 16

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Only a few hours ago, a web page went live and images hit the magical interwebs to finally illuminate us about UU Uniqlo Undercover, UNIQLO's highly anticipated follow up to the much loved +J  collaboration with the designer Jil Sander.

Anyone looking for some of Undercover designer Jun Takahashi's more avant-garde looks translated to a better price point might be surprised to see some fairly traditional family scenes here in the initial lookbook images. In fact, UU is being promoted as "clothing for the families of today", and unlike the chain's preceding collaboration, the 105 piece collection will include 43 items for men, 34 items for women, 27 items for children and even 5 things for babies. The designer collaborated with his wife and partner RICO for the children's collection, inspired in part by their own kids. It's a little hard to pick out the details in the promotional images that have just been released, but Uniqlo describes the looks as follows:

The men's line matches gentle colors with darker tones, while 's offerings for women are based upon an exciting palette of colors and patterns drawn from Takahashi's groundbreaking label. Both the men's and women's lines feature a diverse range of fashionable cuts and patterns.

As the parents of two children, the couple lavished attention on the designs for children and babies to produce a playful combination of vibrant colors, unique prints and fine details, pushing this collection far beyond the conventional realm of children's clothing. With the new collection, UNIQLO and Takahashi have developed an eclectic range of fine designs for the whole family, so parents can have fun complementing their children's looks.

That should whet your appetite just a bit for the next  six weeks or so until the collection arrives in Uniqlo's flagship stores. If the line does not seem quite as experimental as some might have expected, it should delight fans of more prosaic, everyday Japanese sportswear. The launch is set to debut with the opening of the chain's latest global flagship in Tokyo's Ginza district, and presumably will hit New York's three flagships at the same time. If we receive the entire line, it will also mark the return of children's apparel to Uniqlo's New York stores, something Uniqlo's U.S. President Shin Odake promised The Shophound last October when we toured the new 34th Street store.

Sadly, we only have price ranges in Japanese yen, so to tell you that the line will retail from ¥790 to ¥7990 (roughly $10.50 to $105) might not mean much until the line is priced for the U.S. market given taxes, duties and whatever else comes into comes into consideration in making those decisions.

We will certainly miss +J (and there's still some left at great sale prices —especially outerwear at the 34th street store) but this new collection couldn't look more promising, and we'll be keeping an eye out for more images and information as they hopefully appear before mid-March.

UU Uniqlo Undercover launches at UNIQLO stores on March 16th
UNIQLO To Release UU On March 16. First Collaboration With Jun Takahashi's Undercover Label To Focus On Fashionable Family Apparel (Fast Retailing Press Release)
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