A Fashion Brand Opens a New Chapter
Uniqlo is stepping outside its lane – past basics, past collaborations – and into print, partnering with Cate Blanchett on a literary magazine called Stories She Tells, with its first issue scheduled for fall 2027.
What the Project Actually Is
This is not a brand lookbook dressed up in literary clothing. Stories She Tells is positioned as a genuine literary magazine, built around an open call for essays – meaning any writer can submit work for consideration. The themes anchoring the inaugural issue are connection and women’s empowerment, both broad enough to invite range, specific enough to signal editorial intent.
Blanchett is not lending her name to a masthead and stepping aside. She will chair the selection committee, putting her directly in the process of deciding which essays make the cut. That is a meaningful distinction. The magazine’s credibility will rest, in part, on whether the selection reflects real literary judgment or brand-safe choices, and having Blanchett at the table shifts the stakes for both outcomes.
Open calls carry their own politics. They signal access and democratic possibility, but the committee ultimately controls what gets through. With Blanchett heading that committee, the editorial voice of Stories She Tells becomes partly hers – which is either the project’s greatest asset or its most complicated variable, depending on how the selections land with readers.
Uniqlo has long built its identity around quiet functionality – clothes that don’t shout, campaigns that emphasize everyday life rather than aspiration. A literary magazine organized around women’s voices and the theme of connection fits that brand logic, even if the medium is unexpected. It’s a lateral move, not an obvious one.
Fashion and the Written Word
The overlap between fashion brands and literary publishing is not new, but it remains rare enough to register. Most fashion-adjacent print ventures lean toward imagery – art books, photography collections, oversized coffee table objects where text is secondary. A magazine built on essays, selected through an open submission process, leans in a different direction entirely. It asks to be read, not just looked at.
Women’s empowerment as a theme has become familiar shorthand in both fashion and media, but the essay format demands more than a slogan. Essays require argument, structure, and a point of view sustained over multiple pages. If the open call draws serious writers, the first issue could set a genuine editorial standard. If it draws submissions calibrated to what submitters think a fashion brand wants to hear, the results will read accordingly.
Blanchett brings a particular credibility to a project like this – she has been a consistent presence at the intersection of culture, advocacy, and fashion for years, and her selection as head of the committee suggests Uniqlo wants the magazine to be taken seriously outside its existing customer base. A literary magazine associated with an Oscar-winning actress who is also known for her public positions on gender equity carries different weight than one fronted by a model or influencer.
The fall 2027 timeline gives the project room. That’s more than two years from announcement to release, which is long enough to build an editorial infrastructure, run a proper open call, review submissions, and produce something with genuine depth. It also means the magazine will be judged against whatever the cultural moment looks like in late 2027, which is impossible to predict but worth noting.
What remains unspecified – at least for now – is the distribution model. Will Stories She Tells live in Uniqlo stores? Will it circulate through bookshops and literary channels? Will it exist digitally alongside a physical edition? Those decisions will shape who actually reads it and how it sits within the broader literary landscape. Fashion has recently found other ways to claim literary space, but distribution still determines reach.
What the Selection Process Will Reveal
The open call is the piece of this announcement that carries the most consequence. It is an invitation – to writers who might never have considered submitting work to a fashion brand’s publication, and to readers who will eventually measure the selections against the promise of that open door. Blanchett’s role as head of the selection committee means her taste and priorities will shape what Stories She Tells actually becomes, not just what it claims to be in press releases.
The inaugural issue is one issue. Whether the project continues past fall 2027, whether it builds a readership that returns for a second volume, whether Blanchett stays involved beyond the launch – none of that is settled yet. The open call hasn’t opened. The essays haven’t been written.
