UNIQLO’s Spring/Summer 2026 offer is split across two distinct drops. The UNIQLO:C line, designed by British creative director Clare Waight Keller, delivers polished everyday dressing built around soft seasonal fabrics and fluid silhouettes. Running alongside it, the UNIQLO and JW ANDERSON collaboration brings a playful, colour-saturated take on classic British preppy style.
A Brand That Has Always Played the Long Game
Founded in Japan in 1984, UNIQLO has built one of the most recognisable fashion identities in the world without ever chasing trends. The brand operates over 2,500 stores globally, from Tokyo to Toronto, and its LifeWear philosophy has stayed consistent for decades: simple, high-quality clothing made for everyday life, with real attention paid to fabric, cut, and function. What makes UNIQLO interesting is its ability to bring in some of fashion’s sharpest creative minds, from Jil Sander to Christophe Lemaire to JW ANDERSON, and translate their vision into pieces that are genuinely wearable and accessible. The Spring/Summer 2026 season is the clearest expression of that strategy yet.
UNIQLO x Claire Waight Keller: Quiet Confidence, Sharp Cuts
Clare Waight Keller arrived at UNIQLO as Creative Director in September 2024, bringing with her a career built at the top of European luxury fashion. A British Fashion Award winner and TIME 100 alumna, she is not the obvious pick for a mass-market retailer. That tension is exactly what makes UNIQLO:C compelling.
Available now, the collection is built around softness and structure in equal measure. Powdery lilac and sky blue dominate the palette, with a sharp red knit cutting through as the season’s accent colour. The fabrics are seasonal without being throwaway: satin sets, ribbed Milano knits, and viscose mesh T-shirts sit alongside a standout voluminous cotton dress with structured shirt sleeves and a clip belt. Every piece is designed to layer intuitively, with a unisex sensibility that makes the whole wardrobe feel fluid rather than prescriptive.
New this season: sunglasses. It is the first time accessories of this kind have entered the UNIQLO:C world, and they arrive properly considered, with UV400 lenses blocking 99% of ultraviolet rays. Retro sports shoes, boat shoes, and an ultra-lightweight tote complete the offering. Nothing feels like an afterthought.
UNIQLO x JW ANDERSON: Preppy Gets a Colour Injection
Jonathan Anderson has been one of fashion’s most interesting voices for years, and his ongoing collaboration with UNIQLO remains one of the best arguments for what happens when a serious designer works without the constraints of luxury pricing. The Spring/Summer 2026 drop, available February 26, is inspired by British nautical sportswear and filtered through a preppy lens that feels fresh rather than nostalgic.
The standout pieces are easy to identify. The women’s short-sleeve Oxford shirt, making its debut in the collaboration, comes in six colours including yellow and pink, with a straight cropped silhouette that reads as genuinely modern. The men’s cotton pique dry polo with the JWA logo is available in 20 colours. Twenty. For anyone building a colour-forward wardrobe this season, that range alone makes the collection worth exploring. Designer T-shirts add another 10 options.
Beyond the tops, the collection delivers a women’s short windproof parka with a water-repellent finish and adjustable hem, men’s cotton-linen cargo shorts with real texture and ease, and a gender-neutral zip jacket pulled from vintage workwear references. Like UNIQLO:C, the entire range is designed to work across genders without needing to announce it.
Both collections reward the same approach to dressing: play with proportion, commit to colour. UNIQLO:C is made for tonal dressing, where pieces from the same colour family are stacked together for a clean, deliberate result. The JW ANDERSON line is built for contrast, pairing complementary hues with wide-leg trousers, shorts, or cargo pants. Cropped tops against relaxed bottoms is the defining silhouette of the season across both ranges. The LifeWear lookbook puts it clearly: mix with intention, match only if you want to.
Images: Courtesy of UNIQLO / UNIQLO LifeWear Magazine No. 14
