Uniqlo and Cate Blanchett Start a Women's Literary Magazine With the University of Tokyo

Uniqlo is starting a literary magazine, and Cate Blanchett is choosing what goes in it. Stories She Tells, launched in Tokyo on October 29, is a project to put women's experiences and points of view into print through essays, made with the University of Tokyo as its first partner. WWD reports that Uniqlo's release calls it the brand's first literary magazine, and FASHIONSNAP that the first issue is due in autumn 2027.

That first issue takes "Connection" as its theme. It will carry essays from an open call that starts this winter, alongside research papers and literary work on the same subject, according to FASHIONSNAP, and Blanchett chairs the selection committee. Who can enter and how pieces are picked will be announced around December. Faculty from the university's IncluDE centre for diversity and inclusion will advise on the theme and the editing, and Uniqlo plans to take the project to universities around the world after that. WWD adds that the writers chosen will get support for their writing and mentorship.

The launch

Blanchett, Uniqlo's global brand ambassador, launched it at a press conference at the University of Tokyo with two of its students, executive vice president Kaori Hayashi and the novelist Mieko Kawakami, and read from Kawakami's Breasts and Eggs and Clarice Lispector's "Belonging", WWD reports. She told WWD the idea grew out of conversations, starting about a year ago, with Koji Yanai, group senior executive officer at Uniqlo's parent company Fast Retailing. Outside the university's General Library, a one-day book fair for students, the One-Day Bookshelf, stocked books by women writers, artists and photographers chosen by Nohohon BOOKS&COFFEE, a bookshop in Hokuto, Yamanashi.

The suit

Blanchett was in Tokyo for more than the magazine. Uniqlo posted on October 29 that she has been honoured with the Praemium Imperiale in the Theatre and Film category, and that its creative director, Clare Waight Keller, offered to design her looks for the events. The jacket's Uniqlo label reads "For Cate Blanchett, designed by Clare Waight Keller" and dates the ceremony to October 28, 2026.

Uniqlo

"It was a pleasure to create a bespoke suit for her for this special occasion," Waight Keller said in Uniqlo's post. "We worked with beautiful Japanese wool tailoring and fine silk, exploring the balance of structure and fluidity, and the subtle details that make tailoring feel personal."

Uniqlo

The read

Brand ambassadors usually mean a campaign and a front row. Uniqlo is using Blanchett as an editor instead, and putting a university's name next to its own, which gives the magazine a weight a clothing company can't give it alone. It isn't new to print, either: Uniqlo already publishes its own LifeWear magazine. The open question is how much of the brand the new one carries. Nothing published so far says whether the essays will sit next to clothes, how the magazine will be distributed, or whether it will cost anything. And it's slow by design, with an open call over the winter and a first issue nearly a year off. Until then the bespoke suit is the more visible Uniqlo moment, and a reminder of why Waight Keller is nominated in British Womenswear at this year's Fashion Awards.