The fashion secret Cate Blanchett can’t keep

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Not a single model appeared at the biggest show of New York Fashion Week. There was no front row but Vogue boss Anna Wintour was present, along with Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett, tennis champion Roger Federer and Clare Waight Keller, the designer of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s wedding dress.

There was no runway, and no glimpse of coming collections, but this A-list gathering was more likely to change the way you think and talk about what you wear than the exquisite long-line leather coats at Coach, and Calvin Klein’s dress made from underwear elastic.

This was a celebration of the ubiquitous Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo, famous for its puffer jackets, cashmere jumpers and elevated basics. Since launching in Japan 41 years ago and arriving in Australia in 2014, the brand has conquered the commercial gap between fast fashion and luxury labels, becoming the worst-kept secret of the well-dressed.

Clare Waight Keller, Roger Federer and Cate Blanchett at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

“What’s amazing is everyone wears Uniqlo whether they say it or not,” says John C. Jay, president of global creative for Uniqlo, who established a fashion industry benchmark for awareness when he helped bring Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign to life. “That’s a proof point we need to build on.”

Blanchett and Waight Keller are Jay’s building blocks for Uniqlo pride. Together, the fashion-forward duo are removing any traces of shame about admitting to having the label in your wardrobe.

Last month Blanchett was named a global ambassador for Uniqlo. It’s a step up from her introduction to the brand, buying socks and undies for the family. At the New York party the Disclaimer actress spoke about Uniqlo with the same reverence she uses regarding outfits from Louis Vuitton and the late Giorgio Armani.

“With Uniqlo you are building a wardrobe over time,” Blanchett says. “It shouldn’t be a luxury to have good, well-made, quality clothes. They should be available to all, and I think that’s in the DNA of the brand.”

Blanchett’s own red-carpet reputation has been enhanced by re-wearing gowns at major events, such as the Armani Prive gown she wore to the 2018 Venice Film Festival and upcycled into a jumpsuit for last year’s AACTA Awards in Sydney. Like Uniqlo founder Tadashi Yanai – Japan’s second-richest man, who stressed at the beginning of the evening that his brand is not fast fashion – Blanchett regards the range as affordable investment-wear.

“I grew up with a Depression-era grandmother, so the idea of waste has always been anathema to me,” she says. “I think waste is the enemy of creativity. What I love about investigating Uniqlo and visiting the mothership in Tokyo is that you have the classics, staples that you can build up a personal sense of style with by holding on to things. And if you don’t want them, you pass them on to other people.

“Consumers are thinking about quality and durability and having items that are not disposable, sometimes for economic reasons but I also think for aesthetic reasons and emotional reasons. Clothes are receptacles of memory. What you put close to your skin, it has an emotional impact on you. I have a denim jacket that I was given by my parents for my 15th birthday that I still love and wear.”

Clothing from the Uniqlo LifeWear range at the Museum of Modern Art in New York during fashion week.

While Blanchett’s job involves wearing the clothes, it’s up to Waight Keller to create them. The affable designer started working with Uniqlo in 2023 on the C capsule collection before being promoted to creative director in 2024.

“I’m really excited about Cate coming on board,” Waight Keller says the following day in Uniqlo’s New York headquarters in the Meatpacking District. “Cate last night was in one of my suits and I thought that she looked incredible. If someone like that can look amazing in a suit that’s essentially $US140 [$212] for the whole suit, that’s amazing.”

Having worked at the luxury French labels Chloe and Givenchy, where she designed Meghan’s dress, Waight Keller is invigorated by the challenge of designing items with far fewer zeroes on the end of the price tag. She is the latest design star to exit a luxury brand and move to the high street, with former Hermes designer Christophe Lemaire working with Uniqlo, and Dior creative director Jonathan Anderson creating capsule collections.

“It really felt very natural for me that this could be the future of where I wanted to go next in terms of design, and I also really love the appeal of being democratic to a much broader audience.”

Roger Federer, Clare Waight Keller, Koji Yanai, Anna Wintour, Cate Blanchett and artist-in-residence Kaws at the Uniqlo event in New York.

“For so long I have been in this very niche area. Many luxury brands have a huge voice to the consumer but a tiny customer base. It was so frustrating to me on many levels to have fans come up and go, ‘I love what you do, I hope I can buy one piece one day’. It was such a shame.”

Now Waight Keller gets a hit of dopamine when she sees a tracksuit or jacket she designed on the street. “I can tell when they’re my tracksuit pants,” she says.

As we move out of cashmere jumper season (Waight Keller suggests owning one oversized jumper and one fitted jumper to play with proportions), the creative director is focusing on jeans and T-shirts (boxy and shrunken) for summer.

“Jeans right now are huge. It’s a huge trend across youth culture, from Gen Z up to Millennials, everyone’s in denim, it’s everywhere. I’m looking at how extreme are the shapes going. Is it still staying really big, or is it starting to narrow down, or are we starting to taper? Is the waist going higher or lower?”

Those jean sales add up. Last year Uniqlo’s parent group Fast Retailing reported revenues of more than ¥3 trillion ($31 billion). The goal is to reach ¥10 trillion.

“We’re very modest,” Jay says. “We have a lot of room to learn and to gain knowledge to enhance our brand and make it more universal.”

The writer travelled to New York as a guest of Uniqlo.

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