Uniqlo and Jil Sander are Kaput, *Sad Face*

Today the blogosphere is abuzz with the news that UNIQLO and Jil Sander are ending their partnership together.

The relationship started in March 2009 with the inaugural of a highly anticipated +J collection that had a line of customers going down the block at UNIQLO's Soho store for several days. I remember initially thinking that it was just a one time deal, similar to what H&M does with it's designer partnerships, but UNIQLO and Jil Sander smartly continued the collaboration. Although the last few collections haven't had quite the same reception as the first one (meaning the line of customers was smaller), there was still a significantly long wait, which led me to believe that +J would be around for quite some time. However, according to the official statement, "Ms. Sander and UNIQLO agreed that they had fully explored the possibilities of their creative collaboration and accomplished what they had set out to do. Consequently, the two parties have decided to wrap up their design consulting agreement with this collection."

The Fall 2011 collection will be the last and I expect, with the amount of coverage this is getting, that the line of people waiting to snatch it up will be the same as it was two years ago. Expect a long wait.