British designer Clare Waight Keller has logged time at some of the biggest fashion brands in the world. Born in Birmingham, England, she moved to New York to work on lifestyle labels like Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein and eventually to Paris to oversee artistic direction at luxury houses Chloé and Givenchy. But when she struck up a partnership with Uniqlo in 2023 to create the Uniqlo : C collection for the juggernaut Japanese brand, she pulled inspiration from somewhere closer to home.
“The start of Uniqlo : C really came out of me working on a collection that was really inspired by Europe, and London in particular,” she explains. “I think because I’ve worked for so many different companies, I wanted a place that really expressed me more than anything. The portrayal of fashion that I really love is so much more about style than the idea of always having cutting-edge pieces. It’s about this sense of timelessness mixed with modernity, and London always has had that for me.”
Prior seasons of C have focused on different neighbourhoods around the English capital; for Autumn 2024, Waight Keller looked to the Barbican Center, a brutalist performing-arts centre that opened in 1982. “I’ve always had a fascination with the Barbican,” she says. “I wanted to just bring in the architecture, the brutalist nature, the fact that it is kind of a city within a city—it really sort of expresses something interesting.”
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The result is a collection of pieces that blend Waight Keller’s signature softness with sharp, architectural lines and a muted colour palette punctuated by plaids and checks. Each piece, from a stand-collar parka to a flowing pair of trousers, can be easily mixed and matched with pretty much everything else in the lineup. And most exciting for us here at Esquire, the collection for the first time includes a full array of menswear, with prices ranging from USD40 to USD130. (This isn’t to say shoppers shouldn’t consider buying from both sides of the proverbial aisle. In fact, Waight Keller encourages it, especially with oversized outerwear.)
We caught up with Waight Keller to talk about the collection’s highlights, why she decided to dive into menswear this time, and the one category she was particularly pleased to add to the offering this season. Read a few (condensed and edited) highlights from our conversation.
Because I’ve done menswear in the past, it was always in the back of my mind it would be great to do it, and especially with a company such as Uniqlo, which has a strength in menswear. What’s been fascinating to me over the last few seasons is you just see how much of the product crosses over. I often hear from the mainline collection how much product women shop in menswear and vice versa.
It felt natural to me to branch into menswear, but especially after launching the last couple of collections, we got so many requests through my social media, Uniqlo’s social media, through the online portal… “When’s menswear coming? When’s menswear coming?” It felt like there was a real need for it. In a way, actually, I didn’t push the conversation; it just came to us. It felt like a very natural thing to evolve into men’s.
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You become a lot more aware of how real people are dressing in real life. I really love that, because that’s a part of what I used to like injecting into my collections anyway. For me, it’s sort of tapping even more into an area, which I really think is the way forward in fashion. The reality is that it’s on the street, it’s what everybody’s wearing today, and though we have to keep pushing things forward constantly, the real excitement for me is the fact that so many people can wear this collection. It’s so accessible.
I suppose my specific reference comes from British roots, but also it has a softness. As a designer, I’ve been known to have a slight, soft hand in the way I develop my design narrative. I think there is that element of it, even with the menswear, especially this season—like this soft, sort of felted knitted jacket. It harks back to my knitwear heritage [as prior artistic director of Pringle of Scotland], but it’s the idea of this tailoring piece but completely like a cardigan. Then the long parka, which is ultra-ultra-lightweight, so it’s almost the same weight as something that you might find in womenswear. It doesn’t have as much heft, but it’s just the same warmth. It’s those touches of bringing in things that are much more from my point of view and differentiate from what Uniqlo U is doing and what JW Anderson does.
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I really hope that the menswear expands even further. I really do think what Uniqlo : C does, and all the collaborations at Uniqlo, is bringing that perspective of a fashion-centric capsule to the big brand that Uniqlo is, one that sells the best basics and the really great classic items. It’s a layer of a fashion focus. I like the fact that it’s a drop. It comes in, and it goes out, and these things are just there for a moment in time. I think between all of the designers that work with Uniqlo and what we do, expanding the menswear even further and making a bit more of a fashion statement in menswear is really key. I’m really excited to grow that even further.
This season is the first time we’re launching any kind of footwear. For me, that was a really important part of finishing the look. We have these monochromatic black and white sneakers—natural sole, low cut, almost like a classic military sneaker. I think there’s that sort of essence of it, coming from a timeless origin and then brought into this new language with Uniqlo : C. It finishes the look both on the men’s and the women’s; they’re completely unisex. I’ve worn them as well. Really, really comfortable.
