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\n\tTOKYO \u2014<\/strong> For her latest initiative as Uniqlo global brand ambassador, Cate Blanchett is helping to launch \u201cStories She Tells,\u201d a literary magazine featuring essays that highlight women\u2019s experiences and perspectives through storytelling.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a release, Uniqlo said that the project, its first-ever literary magazine, \u201caims to share diverse voices and perspectives across genders and generations, fostering new dialogue and connections.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tThe theme for the inaugural issue, scheduled to be published in autumn of 2027, will be \u201cConnection,\u201d highlighting connections between people, shared experience, and each person\u2019s story within society, according to Uniqlo\u2019s release. <\/p>\n \n\tEssays will be chosen through an open call, with Blanchett as chair of the selection committee. <\/p>\n \n\tThrough the project, select contributors will also receive support for their writing activities and opportunities for mentorship. In addition, the brand plans to include in the magazine academic research papers and literary works related to the theme.<\/p>\n \n\tLaunching through a partnership with the University of Tokyo, the project aims to expand globally through partnerships with universities around the world in the future.<\/p>\n \n\tBlanchett told WWD on Thursday that the project had emerged from conversations with Koji Yanai, group senior executive officer of Uniqlo\u2019s parent Fast Retailing and son of the founder Tadashi Yanai. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe started talking about shared passions, probably about a year ago. And we were talking about different forms of expression,\u201d Blanchett said. \u201cKoji and I obviously share a great love of film, but we all imbibe literature. And I think we\u2019re interested in surprising art forms that perhaps a broader community doesn\u2019t have access to.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere are so many stories out there that we have discovered cinematically that don\u2019t reach the mainstream \u2014 and of course, even though women represent over half of the world\u2019s population, their stories are often kept out of the mainstream,\u201d the actress continued. \u201cGiven Uniqlo\u2019s platform, we started to talk about that perhaps we could help to bring and engender confidence for female literary expression, given that Uniqlo already has an incredible reach globally, and is grounded here in Japan, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPlus, the brand already edits its own magazine so they are \u201cnot new to that sort of form of publication as a part of their business,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \n\tAt a press conference at the University of Tokyo, Blanchett was joined on stage by two students of the university as well as Kaori Hayashi, executive vice president and profession at the university, and writer and poet Mieko Kawakami. The actress read a passage from Kawakami\u2019s novel \u201cBreasts and Eggs,\u201d as well as \u201cBelonging\u201d by Clarice Lispector, writers she described as two of her favorites.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI read a lot. \u200aI peddle in language as an actor, and for my own work you never know where the source of connection or inspiration is going to come from,\u201d Blanchett said. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s a painting or a phrase of music. Sometimes it\u2019s a piece of poetry, or something you\u2019ve read in a memoir or a novel. In my notes in my phone, I\u2019m constantly writing things that I have read, because you never know.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tShe recalled how her friend, the late Australian author Frank Moorhouse, had \u201ca system where he\u2019d read something, or see something, or think something, and he\u2019d write it down on a card and catalog it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAnd so whenever he was writing, he would pull from those memories,\u201d she continued. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s often not until I write something down that I remember to recall it later on. And so that\u2019s what I loved about the analog nature of putting it down in the written word, inviting people to slow down, to connect and try to remember what it is they\u2019re reading, and that someone has taken the time to write it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tEiko Sherba, sustainability marketing director for Uniqlo, spoke about the decision to partner with global universities on the project.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c\u200aIt is partly about women\u2019s voices, but we also wanted to make more use of young people\u2019s energy. And we are not only speaking from a corporate standpoint; we wanted to build the program with a solid understanding of women\u2019s empowerment and gender issues from an academic perspective as well. In that sense, a partnership with a university is one important component,\u201d Sherba said.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c\u200aI think successful initiatives work when each of the partners can see an opportunity for them. And what was really interesting in speaking to the professors and the president of the university is they can see a real opportunity for all of their students to engage in an initiative like this,\u201d Blanchett said. \u201cYou know, any institution, any creative organization reaches a point of stasis unless they welcome change and new, fresh ideas. And so I think it\u2019s really exciting that they too feel the benefit from something like this, not just the writers themselves. I think everyone stands to benefit from it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cStories She Tells\u201d is the latest project that Blanchett has been involved with in her role with Uniqlo, which she has held for a relatively short time.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c\u200aThere\u2019s so much energy within the company. I have an excess of energy that I\u2019m constantly trying to find outlets for, and I feel like so much has happened in the last year that I can\u2019t quite imagine that it\u2019s only been a year,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really amazing to work with such an enormous company that is so nimble. Often when you work with a big institution, it doesn\u2019t move quickly. But there\u2019s so much passion within the company that I\u2019ve been really excited by that.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tYanai said that the partnership with Blanchett has been a special one that he hopes will continue for a long time.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere are a lot of things that we have come to realize through our partnership with Cate, so I really think it\u2019s been a wonderful encounter,\u201d the executive said. \u201cOf course, all of our other ambassadors until now have also been wonderful, but our relationship with Cate has brought us different moments and experiences and stories, which in turn has helped us to learn new things and bring new things to our customers, and this makes us really happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n TOKYO \u2014 For her latest initiative as Uniqlo global brand ambassador, Cate Blanchett is helping to launch \u201cStories She Tells,\u201d a literary magazine featuring essays that highlight women\u2019s experiences and perspectives through…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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