While celebrities watched models strut down catwalks during fashion week in Paris, dozens of people lined up in the rain to buy 40 euro cashmere sweaters at the newly opened Uniqlo store in the city's Opera district.
Two days earlier, it was "impossible to get inside" the store, which is across the road from the Galeries Lafayette department store, Guillaume Terne, 24, said. "There has been so much talk about the brand that I simply couldn't miss it."
While the global recession has hurt luxury brands, Uniqlo's owner, Yamaguchi-based Fast Retailing Co., may see its profit for the business year ending August jump 23 percent to a record on increased demand for the chain's $45 jeans and $17 camisoles with fitted bra cups. The debut of +J, a brand overseen by German designer Jil Sander, may help sustain sales that jumped 32 percent last month.