Droga5 London and Uniqlo Explore Why Humans Wear Clothing in the First Place

By Patrick Coffee 

Last summer, Japanese minimal-wear giant Uniqlo or UNIQLO tasked Droga5 with answering what might seem like a simple question: why do we get dressed?

The New York agency’s first effort (which was also the brand’s debut global campaign) answered that query with a bunch of other questions in reminding us that there’s no one reason to bother throwing on some clothes every day beyond the obvious “avoiding embarrassment” thing.

A new campaign by the agency’s London office dives a bit deeper into that void. First, an ad promoting a new wireless bra looks to “[challenge] the stereotypes of what feminine movements look like” with help from choreographer Ryan Heffington (Sia, The OA) and stylist Nancy Steiner (Lost in Translation).

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Well that definitely reminded us of the last scene in the OA. And for those who haven’t finished the opaque Netflix series, we’re not sure we can make it a top recommendation as you will never get those 8 hours back.

The next spot highlights a very different product: clothes that “breathe” to help save us from our own grossness.

Finally, the last spot in this new campaign focuses on yet another “deceptively simple” item: the classic distressed jean. It also goes back to a common setup: boy sees girl, expresses interest, proceeds to kind of embarrass himself as the two do that odd dance.

The first one was directed by Autumn De Wilde, who’s best known for her portraits of musicians like Beck, with music by her daughter’s band. Nick Gordon of Somesuch helmed the other two, and all the VOs come via the perfectly named actress Tuppence Middleton.

We find ourselves discovering, once again, that we really don’t understand the clothing industry. These spots manage to be a mix of High Fashion and its more practical cousin, but they are quite pretentiously stylish above all else.

“The new UNIQLO campaign is a great example of how exceptional storytelling dimensionalises the technology-led benefits of our LifeWear apparel,” said the client’s president of global creative/fast retailing John C Jay. “The Droga5 London team’s creativity lifts the rational reason to an emotional answer.”

“Dimensionalises” is a new one.

“What we’ve tried to do here is take the rational reasons you buy their clothes and articulate them in the abstract,” added CCO David Kolbusz. “Uniqlo make some of the best clothes I put on my body. Everything they do is dedicated to improving what they sell. Every iteration of every garment is a step up from the last.”

That may well be true, but the main reason we liked Uniqlo’s products when the company first came to New York was their simplicity. To each his or her own, then.

CREDITS

CCO David Kolbusz
ECD Steven Howell, Rick Dodds
Creative Director Devon Hong
Copywriter Ulrika Karlberg
Group Account Director Rebecca Lewis
Account Director Michelle Villarreal
Account Director Alex Dousie
Senior Strategy Director James Broomfield
Agency Producer WIRELESS BRA – Chris Watling
DENIM – Peter Montgomery
AIRISM – Peter Montgomery
Director/ Production Co WIRELESS BRA – Autumn de Wilde / Somesuch
DENIM – Nick Gordon / Somesuch
AIRISM – Nick Gordon / Somesuch
Producer WIRELESS BRA – James Waters
DENIM – Chris Harrison
AIRISM – Chris Harrison
DoP WIRELESS BRA – Chris Blauvelt
DENIM – Evan Prosofsky
AIRISM – Evan Prosofsky
Choreographer WIRELESS BRA – Ryan Heffington
Stylist WIRELESS BRA – Nancy Steiner
DENIM – Lyson Marchessault
Editor WIRELESS BRA – Darren Baldwin / Final Cut
DENIM – Dan Sherwen / Final Cut
AIRISM – Dan Sherwen / Final Cut
Post Production MPC
VFX: MPC
VFX Producer: Sophie Hogg
2D Supervisor : Bruno Fukumothi
Grade: MPC
Colourists: Houmam Abdallah, Richard Fearon
Sound Design Will Cohen / String and Tins
Music WIRELESS BRA – “Ants” by Starcrawler
DENIM – Baby. By Donnie and Joe Emerson
AIRISM – Evaporate by William Doyle
English VO Artist Tuppence Middleton

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