Francesco Risso’s first collection for GU arrives this month, marking the former Marni creative director’s official debut for the Fast Retailing label. After a decade at Prada and nine years steering Marni’s entire aesthetic universe, the Italian designer is now tasked with shaping GU’s next chapter as the brand celebrates its 20th anniversary.
The brand has mostly operated as Uniqlo‘s younger, louder sibling. Same parent company, Fast Retailing, which also holds Theory and Helmut Lang in its portfolio, so the corporate range already stretches from mall-friendly basics to minimalist downtown price points. GU sits closer to the former end, chasing trend cycles at a cost that doesn’t punish you for guessing wrong.
GU’s name comes from the Japanese word “Jiyū,” meaning freedom, and it launched in Japan back in 2006, quietly building a footprint of nearly 500 stores across Asia before it ever bothered to cross an ocean. The U.S. didn’t get a taste until 2024, when GU planted its flag with a SoHo flagship and an online store built to actually ship nationwide.
Risso spent 2016 through 2025 turning Marni into one of fashion’s most talked-about houses, all bulbous silhouettes, clashing prints, and a sensibility that felt more like performance art than ready-to-wear. Risso is now GU’s creative director. His first season for GU is less a single “collection” than six of them stitched under one roof.
“The wardrobe of today needs to feel grounded and accessible, yet also leave space for imagination,
individuality, and play,” says Risso. “The six lifestyle concepts are an attempt to reflect that reality;
everyday dressing can be both practical and expressive, familiar and surprising.”
What’s worth noting is that this isn’t Risso’s first brush with Fast Retailing’s ecosystem. Marni’s collaboration with Uniqlo in 2022 gave him an early run at designing for a mass audience rather than a niche one, and by most accounts, it stuck with him. He’s also not the only high-fashion name making this jump. The industry’s watched a steady stream of designers trade the runway for retail, from John Galliano collaborating with Zara to Clare Waight Keller landing at Uniqlo, while Isaac Mizrahi and Zac Posen have taken similar swings at Target and Gap. The trade-off tends to run the same way each time: the designer gets stability and a genuinely massive audience, and the retailer borrows a little runway credibility in return.
For Fall/Winter 2026, GU is calling its new design framework “Jiyū,” its answer to how people actually get dressed now, splitting the lineup into distinct personalities: Minimal leans monochrome and pared-back. Classic pulls from ’70s silhouettes without feeling costume-y. Playful is where the color and pattern-clashing lives. Utility keeps things functional for anyone bouncing between city errands and actual outdoor plans. Sport digs into ’80s and ’90s athletic references. Cozy rounds things out as the loungewear-focused category, built around soft pastels and easy comfort.
The idea isn’t to pick a lane, it’s to let a Minimal blazer live next to a Playful sweater in the same closet, since GU built the six worlds to overlap rather than stay siloed.
None of this abandons what GU has always been about. Prices still sit in that impulse-buy territory shoppers expect from the brand, even with a designer of Risso’s pedigree now shaping the line. It’s a strange pairing on paper, a guy known for conceptual, editorial-heavy design suddenly working within a fast-fashion price structure. But that tension is kind of the point. GU’s leadership has been open about wanting the collaboration to feel like a surprise in both directions: elevated design, without the elevated markup.
“By combining customer-centered product development with the creativity of Francesco Risso, we have newly realized apparel that balances expressive design with a high level of refinement,” says GU President and CEO Tomokazu Kurose. “I think customers will be pleasantly surprised by the prices of these products.”
The full GU Fall/Winter 2026 range hits stores and the GU website on July 24th. Check out Risso’s first collection with GU below.
GU Fall/Winter 2026 Collection
Release Date: July 24, 2026
