Sensational Shapers 2012 - Uniqlo

The fashion world has historically been dominated by a few cities. There are four big centers in the fashion world, London, New York City, Milan and Paris. London and Paris have been intertwined with London often anglicizing Parisian trends. New York City emerged as a fashion center in the 20th century. Milan reclaimed some of Italy's past glory in the eighties. Since then, many shops and designers have emerged to emulate these centers. Now that communication and images can so easily spread around the world, fashion shops tend to copy with greater speed and then tweak it to match their region's cultural tendencies. This has led to major competition with the four traditional fashion centers and other cities have emerged as fashionable in their own right. Places like Los Angeles, Rome, Chicago, São Paulo, Sydney, Barcelona and Tokyo all have some claim to fashion trendsetting.

For years fashion and power have gone hand in hand. The Sun King, Louis XIV pioneered high heels in his powerful reign. While men usually don't wear high heels anymore fashion still follows the power. In today's terms that means money follows the cash. As the United States is still, even in the rockiest of times, a place with unprecedented discretionary spending power fashion has made its way to the power.

Unfortunately, for the vast majority of us, basically only excluding those outside of haute couture and those that can afford to shop at Neiman Marcus, the fashion world has appropriated hipster styling. Minimalist chic and casual prêt-à-porter on a budget are so en vogue right now. In America this market has been dominated by three main shops. First, the homegrown store from Philly that we know is simply a front for world domination, Urban Outfitters. Then there is the Swedish store called H & M. Lastly, there is Zara, a Spanish outfit. Then there are a bevy of knock-offs and wannabes that follow suit. Now one of the minor fashion centers is exporting their hipster trendy wares to where the money is.

Uniqlo, a Japanese based hipster/hipster curious friendly boutique shop has had stores in Manhattan since 2005, but they have an aggressive strategy to increase their revenue in the United States (and in China). With effective marketing to an eager public Uniqlo is poised to become a household name in 2012 and really shake up the trendsters fashion shopping routine. However, the real reason that Uniqlo is a Sensational Shaper of 2012 is how they might aid or stop the growing threat of the United Republic of Urban Outfitters.

IKEA has been working diligently to stymie the U.R.U.O. Owls have sided with the enemy. Quebec has kept UO's unwanted advances at bay for now. As Uniqlo steps up it could tip the balance one way or the other. If Uniqlo were to form some sort of alliance with UO it would be disastrous. It is possibly that even so valiant a champion such as IKEA might not be able to stop the combined forces of evil. If that were to happen, IKEA might have no choice but to turn to the dark side for some help, the London based hipster hawker, Topshop. Stay tuned for more Sensational Shapers and keep your eyes on Uniqlo, they'll be making a big shake up in 2012.