What has the relationship been like between J.W. and Uniqlo, and how might it have evolved over these three editions?

Everything has really come from us talking to Uniqlo. We have to make something that fits within their framework. They have a customer. Why I love working with Uniqlo is I want to be able to work with their knowledge and look at how you can purchase things and challenge each other. Because ultimately that’s where you get good design. It’s through challenge and in a weird way through friction. One is pushing the other and you get really good results.

For example, color. I love color, I love a print on a print, and I like things that are poppy. And that’s something, you know, where I would like to think that I push and take a risk, but maybe not (laughs). Or, we did a mac that was bonded in the first collection with a check or a puffer with a check and that was a risk and sometimes these things work out. But then at the same time, what I learned from Uniqlo is that it’s about how do you build upon the democracy of clothing and how do you not just appeal to one country. It’s not about that, it’s about ticking boxes globally and it makes you think differently.

What do you think about the effect globalism has had on fashion?

As a benefit and negative of social media and the Internet, it made the world very small in a weird way, as much as we thought it would get really big. That’s quite at the same time incredibly liberating, but it comes up with challenges. When you are talking about a product, you are talking globally. It used to be apparent you would talk to different markets differently; now we have one message and in a weird way, Uniqlo is very poised for that because that’s what they’re about. It’s about that one message and that it has to be able to appeal to everyone. I think that’s a fascinating approach.

How do you navigate that challenge of creating something with more universal appeal, while maintaining your own core identity?

I think the key to Uniqlo’s core identity is that it is one of the only brands you can mix with other brands, high and low. And I think ultimately, they are giving the consumer the versatility to be able to say “do what you want to do with the clothes.” It’s not a dictated look. It is not a look that is going to work for 25 people or for 100 people, it’s a product that needs to work for tens of thousands of people. And it allows the consumer to make the decision. You can put this with this, with this, with this. They are not a precious brand, and I think that’s what’s so important in what they do.

I know sometimes they hate me saying we’re basic, but in a weird way, I think it is an amazing piece of classicism. It’s very tempting to over-egg product today. The Internet has made us become incredibly loud. We need things that are shocking or controversial or colorful or talking points, and sometimes, you have to make things quite subtle. Because ultimately, that’s what we want to get up in the morning and easily put on. Not that you need an entire wardrobe like that, but it is an amazing base level to have an amazing knit, an amazing pair of socks, an amazing T-shirt. And I feel how fantastic that a product lets you do the talking, instead of the product. It’s not often you can get that.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Uniqlo and JW Anderson launches on March 7 online and in select Uniqlo stores.