UNIQLO Designers Invitation Round 3: Alexander Plokhov and 3.1 Phillip Lim Hit

UNIQLO's Designers Invitation Project seems to be gaining steam, as there were lines of customers this morning waiting for capsule collections from 3.1 Phillip Lim and Alexander Plokhov to become available. By midday, the cavernous SoHo Global Flagship was still buzzing and staff were furiously trying to fill in whatever sizes they had left. Lim's collection was attracting lots of attention, and looked easy and sporty for summer with its schoolgirl plaids styled in loose, modish chemise dresses with scarf tied details. They were complemented by draped, cotton and rayon jersey separates and trapeze dresses which should ease up the main drawback of these collections, the self-esteem shattering Japanese sizing. Yes, they run small, and taking into consideration that they are produced primarily for UNIQLO's 700 Asian stores isn't any comfort when the thing you want is just too small! There were a few larges left for women here and there, and not an XL to be seen. (UPDATE: Fashionista tells us that the women's line actually runs big for a change, and that the store was only open to fashion editors from 9-11, which explains the ravaged stock.)
The men's line is, sadly, probably the last group of menswear we will see for a while from Alexander Plokhov, as Cloak will be no longer after this season. The military inspired group included long cargo shorts, cotton shirts and appealing striped tunics with band collars, featuring Plokhov's signature details in black, white and shades of gray. Pique polo shirts had shrunken stand-up collars which should delight the tiny, little men who will be able to wear the smalls and extra-smalls that were left. A terrific slim jean in white or indigo disappointed only in the sense that the largest available size, a large which was supposed to be a 34 waist, fit at least a size smaller than the same size in last month's Satoru Tanaka collection, which were not exactly roomy. Back to the rack they went, and The Shophound left without anything from the collection we were most looking forward to seeing. Store staff admitted to us that the size ranges that had been delivered were inconsistent, but since this city has no shortage of small and skinny folk, we still expect strong sell-throughs for the elf-sized collection even faster than the last round. Next month will bring the season's final designer, Japan's G.V.G.V., whom we know next to nothing about, but this fall we can look forward to more collaborations including cashmeres from Adam Jones, Keita Maruyama and a returning Lutz & Patmos.
Previously: UNIQLO snags Cloak, Phillip Lim, Alice Roi and More for Exclusives

Comments

[anon]

Two dresses run small, one REALLY small--you're right about self-esteem shattering. My size 2 friend could barely get out of the paperbag waist dress in the XS and my size 6 body could barely get into the M of the same size, even though the t-shirt dress in S swamped me. We passed on these dresses. I'm tall and it may be that the sizing/height combination on the tie-waist dress was the killer as the skirt was miniscule. The bow dress was true to size to slightly big, the plaid is supposed to be big (although the back is a little narrow) and the paperbag skirt runs smaller than Lim's own line version.
But it's self-esteem shattering to hear that one of these tiny dresses runs big when it's supremely undersized.