Lo and Behold
Uniqlo Lands in the Heart of Paris
Uniqlo? Resistance is truly futile. Never mind those polo shirts that hold their shape and color well into the umpteenth wash or the designer collaborations with the likes of Jil Sander and Gilded Age. The company (whose success has made founder Tadashi Yanai Japan's richest man) has a knack for planting itself in the heart of the action. The new Paris flagship is, for instance, spitting distance from the Opéra Garnier, whose neo-baroque fabulosity echoed Wednesday night with the techno pumped out by Yulia, the blue-haired DJ they're calling Tokyo's Gaga. The store is designed by Masamichi Katayama; the styling is by Nicola Formichetti; the photography of Parisian nu-icons (OK, Sebastien Tellier and Emmanuelle Seigner) by Maciek Kobielski. They were all there on opening night, along with half of Paris and Lykke Li, who provided the entertainment. In a traditional good-luck ritual, Yanai and a posse of other Japanese dignitaries bashed the hell out of some barrels of sake, which was pretty entertaining, too.
