“I’m fortunate enough to work with our CEO Daniel and also our chair Karl-Johan Persson. With them, every decision is about investing very long term, which feels especially good when you’re working with branding because these kinds of things take time,” Andersson says. “You do this kind of [activation], obviously it won’t show in the tills the day after, not even the week after. But then you pick up the sentiments from the consumer, or you hear that people in the creative industries are talking about H&M. When everyone is facing a little bit of a headwind, people are looking for energy. We want to give that energy.”
Andersson hopes that these events will underline that H&M is for a diverse shopper and can address a broader consumer than other high street competitors. “Thinking of our main competitors, whether it’s Zara or Uniqlo, they have a distinct style. We don’t have that specific style. We are much more like a platform, like Spotify, and then you can mix your song, or you can create your playlist,” he explains.
Last night’s collection followed the more maximalist mood fashion is moving into, with punk influence and plenty of checks. But H&M’s music events over the last few seasons have also helped the brand create intrigue, even if collections reflected the quiet luxury trend, Andersson adds. “When fashion becomes a little bit more basic, you have to find new ways of playing with it and inspiring people.”
The key is to do so without alienating existing shoppers. The public involvement in the show is one thing, but H&M will also feature the collections in a simpler, less high fashion context across its AW25 campaigns, to offer customers a different point of view on how to style them, he adds. The retailer will also experiment with different retail strategies to sell the collection, with some key items only available in-store, “learning from the Supremes of this world to create the fear of missing out”.
In terms of future activations, there’s definitely more in the pipeline, Andersson tells me. “You create the model and you have to play it again and again and again, and eventually people will see it and they will understand — it’s not a story you can tell with one event,” he says. “So you have to be very focused and be very sharp and very and not be distracted by everyone else. So we will continue with events and collaborations.”
That said, Andersson is keen to keep mixing it up. “H&M almost should be like you’re chasing soap in the shower. Once you believe that you understand what we’re doing, boom, we will fly off in another direction.”
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