H&M, the fast-fashion retailer borne in Sweden, is known for their innovative collaborations with top fashion designers. Their global stores are quickly becoming legendary for outshining even some of the best boutiques and have fast grown as a new favorite store among youth culture as seen in our Youth Culture Studies.
One reason is their ability to lead trends and turn over inventory within their stores every 2-3 weeks. Their fashion schedule has redefined the industry as more brands try to get product to market as quickly as the changing consumer’s attitudes and expectations. H&M has also successfully captured youth culture via their online store capabilities and various social media and virtual campaigns.
Today, they announced that come November 15, 2012, they are collaborating with the Parisian house Maison Martin Margiela for Fall/Winter 2012, which will launch in 230 H&M stores globally as well as online.
It’s an interesting collaborative choice as Maison Martin Margiela is known as a collaborative design team in and of themselves. The French fashion house which has always followed its own path, often outside the conventional fashion framework, believing in the absolute importance of the collaborative nature of its team rather than the individual. According to their own explanation, “its ideals are founded in the desire for concept and creativity. Constantly questioning the norms of fashion and presenting its pieces through the technique of deconstruction and transformation, the collections reinvent volumes, modify shapes, change the original use and movement of garments and derail classic notions of fashion.”
If their latest collection is any indication, expect lots of usages of white, with an emphasis on silhouette and texture. “MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA is one of the most important and influential fashion houses of the past three decades. I am so excited by this collaboration which will give fashion lovers around the world the chance to wear special pieces by MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA. This collaboration will be a great and memorable fashion moment“, says Margareta van den Bosch, creative advisor at H&M.
“We are very happy to present MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA pieces with H&M, offering a new interpretation of our vision. The democracy of our fashion has always been at the centre of our creativity, and the collaboration with H&M allows us to push this instinct further. We will bring together the contrasting universes of the two houses in ways that will surprise all,” according to MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA.
H&M will host their next financial call on June 20, 2012.
