H&M’s fashion story – Established history and Expand position
What is the H&M’s fashion story? H&M is a Swedish retail fashion brand. The brand offers high quality apparels and accessories of all ages from women, men, teenagers and children.
Photo: www.hm.com
The motto of H&M brand is that customers can trust and provide excellent fashion products at reasonable prices. Customers may not be able to afford a high-end fashion product from Chanel or Prada, but they still have a stylish look when paying for fashion items at a moderate price from H&M.
In addition to the main product lines, H&M also displays items such as furniture and cosmetics to diversify its products to consumers. Focusing on providing affordable fashion products, fast fashion style has allowed them to gain a foothold in the international fashion industry and be an important rival in the fashion industry.
Established history
Photo: successstory.com
What is the H&M’s fashion story? The brand was founded in 1947 by Erling Persson with the first store opening in Västerås, Sweden, which sells women’s clothing products. The original name of the brand was “Hennes”.
It was not until 1968 when Persson acquired the apparel brand Mauritz Widforss that he changed the company name to Hennes & Mauritz to emphasize adding men’s product lines to the brand. Shortly after the merger, the brand’s name was shortened and officially changed to H&M. From there, the company’s reputation gradually began to expand beyond Sweden’s borders.
The first international H&M stores appeared in Northern European countries such as Norway and Denmark, followed by the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
In 1973, the company started to sell lingerie. ABBA member Anni-Frid Lyngstad is the first star to promote the brand’s cosmetic collection. In 1980, H&M expanded its brand globally.
In 1982, Erling Persson officially handed the company over to his son – Steffan Persson as CEO of the brand.
With continued success, H&M expanded its stores even further on the European continent. By the 1990s, the brand had a firm foothold in the hearts of customers. In their advertising campaign, famous supermodels like Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington appeared on the covers of countless fashion magazines during H&M’s promotional campaign.
H&M was also a pioneer in providing online shopping when the Internet boom in 1998.
Expand position
What is the H&M’s fashion story. H&M entered the new millennium by marking an important milestone of opening the first H&M store outside of Europe. New York was the first non-European city to feature an H&M store. Located at Fifth Avenue, the store directly competes with many luxury brands dominating the famous shopping district, as well as other popular and competitive fashion brands.
However, the company has implemented a wise business strategy by not treating premium brands as competitors but as an ally to collaborate with. Since then, both sides have a profit in the business.
Designer Karl Lagerfeld (right) – Photo: successstory.com
This strategy was successfully implemented in 2004 when H&M began working with renowned German designer Karl Lagerfeld – the designer of high-end brands such as Chanel, Fendi and his own fashion brand. The goal of this strategy is to introduce collaborative designs from a limited collection of high-end items that are sold at H&M prices. Therefore, customers can own products from favorite designers.
The first fateful cooperation strategy with Lagerfeld was very successful, H&M continued to invite other major designers to collaborate such as Donatella Versace, Roberto Cavalli, Stella McCartney, Alexander Wang, and Rei Kawakubo of Comme Des Garcons.
In 2007, H&M entered the Asian market with some of its first stores in Hong Kong and Shanghai, while they also continued to expand online shopping with other international markets.
In 2009, the brand launched the H&M website to help support online sales. To reduce the harmful impact of garment production on the environment, H&M has actively launched a series of eco-friendly apparel made from recyclable materials named H&M Conscious in in 2010.
Environmental performance
H&M continues its waste reduction and environmental protection program in production from 2013. Customers who donate or give used clothes to any H&M store will receive a coupon. The clothes are then processed and recycled to create new garments to achieve the goal of zero waste. The company has also partnered with non-profit organizations like Canopy to ensure garment manufacturing operations do not harm nature.
Sudan supermodel Alek Wek – Photo: successstory.com
The brand also launched the H&M Foundation – a non-profit organization that makes positive changes and enhances the lives of many developing countries around the world.
The organization’s activities include four main goals: providing education for children, empowering women and fighting for equality, helping poor areas to access clean water, and education for people to have environmental consciousness.
The H&M Foundation is sponsored by the Persson family and appointed Sudanese supermodel Alek Wek as the first ambassador for the H&M Foundation in April 2014 for a three-year term.
In 2015, the H&M Foundation also launched the The Global Change Award – a competition to find great changes in the fashion industry, creating clothes without damaging nature in the production process. The winners will share a prize of 1 million euros, as well as guidance and support to help them develop and realize the idea.
Thanh Huyen
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