Uniqlo Launches Project to Support Refugees, Women and Children
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TOKYO — Uniqlo launched a new charity initiative supporting refugees, women and children through T-shirt sales. Called Peace for All, the project will enlist internationally renowned leaders in design, art, literature, science and sports to design UT T-shirts on a volunteer basis, with proceeds going to three organizations.
For the initial round of the project, Uniqlo has tapped five such creators: architect Tadao Ando, creative director Kashiwa Sato, model and designer Ines de la Fressange, novelist Haruki Murakami, and physician, scientist and Nobel Prize laureate Shinya Yamanaka. Each designed a T-shirt, incorporating the project’s theme of peace, into the graphic prints. Uniqlo’s parent company Fast Retailing will donate all profits from the sales of these shirts — no less than 20 percent of the sales price — to organizations that provide humanitarian aid to those affected by poverty, discrimination, violence, conflict and natural disasters.
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“In May this year, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, announced that the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide now exceeds 100 million. For people who have been forced to flee their homes, support such as clothing, water, food, medicine and a safe place to sleep, are vital. Over the years, we have engaged in a number of initiatives to assist those forcibly displaced, thanks to the support and cooperation of our customers,” Tadashi Yanai, Fast Retailing’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in a release. “Uniqlo ‘LifeWear’ is everyday clothes for daily lifestyles. Peace for All is a new LifeWear initiative aimed at aiding those affected by conflict and war and helping to spread the message of peace all over the world. T-shirts have the power to convey a message. Even if you find it difficult to express your own voice, you can participate easily by wearing one of our UTs. The world needs peace now more than ever, and I hope that with Peace for All, this message can be even stronger.”
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At a press event in Tokyo Thursday, Ando joined Koji Yanai, a director and group senior executive officer of Fast Retailing — as well as the elder Yanai’s son — to launch the initiative.
“I wanted to support the people who are living on this earth, even if it’s just in some small way,” Ando said when asked why he decided to participate in the project. The design he contributed is a sketch of his concept that transformed Paris’s historic stock exchange into circular museum for French billionaire and art collection Françoise Pinault. On the T-shirt, the words “the earth is one” appear under the sketch.
Both de la Fressange and Sato used the project’s name in their designs, with the former also drawing a dove and the latter opting for bold text that repeats the words over and over.
“I designed my T-shirt to convey the concept of peace, straight and simple,” Sato wrote about his design. “The repeated call for peace for all represents the feelings and voices of many people worldwide. It express a strong and heartfelt desire for a peaceful world.”
Ten other creators have been listed as initial collaborators in the project. These include Jonathan Anderson, Christophe Lemaire, and athletes and Uniqlo global brand ambassadors Ayumu Hirano, Kei Nishikori, Gordon Reid and Adam Scott, among others. The younger Yanai said Uniqlo will continue to add more collaborators in the future, and that these will include not only individuals, but perhaps also companies, collectives and more.
Proceeds will go to UNHCR, Save the Children and Plan International. Koji Yanai said these were chosen due to their work to support the world’s most vulnerable people, and that at the moment there are no plans to expand the list of beneficiaries in the future.
The first five designs of the UT T-shirts will be available worldwide at Uniqlo stores and online starting from June 17. They include a size run ranging from XS to 4XL, and will retail in Japan at 1,500 yen, or about $11 at current exchange rates.
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