Uniqlo U's autumn/winter 2026 collection closes the label's decade-long "Chapter 1" under Christophe Lemaire
Fast Retailing is framing Uniqlo U's autumn/winter 2026 range as the closing collection of what it now calls the line's "Chapter 1" — a decade of design under Christophe Lemaire and, more recently, Sarah-Linh Tran — with founder Yanai Tadashi marking the handover in a personal statement.
Uniqlo said its Uniqlo U autumn/winter 2026 collection, on sale from 11 September, marks what the company is calling the end of the line's "Chapter 1" — the decade of design under Christophe Lemaire, who has led Uniqlo's Paris R&D Center since Uniqlo U's debut, and Sarah-Linh Tran, who joined the team afterwards.
Fast Retailing chairman, president and chief executive Yanai Tadashi said in the release that a decade has passed since he entrusted Lemaire with leading the evolution of Uniqlo's LifeWear design at the Paris centre, and that Tran's later addition to the team helped shape Uniqlo U into what the company calls its "Future LifeWear."
The collection itself runs to 14 women's pieces built around soft fabrics and structured silhouettes, 17 men's pieces that mix functional and workwear details, and two accessories, under the theme "Confidence in Form." The full range goes on sale 11 September at 101 Uniqlo stores and on the Uniqlo Online Store, with a selection available at every domestic store, according to the release.
Design continuity has always mattered more to Uniqlo U than most collaborator-driven lines: Lemaire and Tran work inside Fast Retailing's own R&D structure rather than as an outside name licensed for a season, which is likely why the label frames a design change as a "chapter" rather than a simple handover. Naming the end of an era in a group statement, with the founder's own words attached, signals that whatever comes next for Uniqlo U's design leadership carries some of the institutional weight Fast Retailing puts behind its core Uniqlo line — a reminder that Uniqlo U functions less as a side project than as the group's testing ground for where its LifeWear design language goes next.