H&M To Show At Paris Fashion Week
With reports that the luxury goods market is alive and well, it seems every label is looking to align themselves in some way with higher-end messaging—even fast-fashion stores like H&M, which we’ve come to depend on for quick and easy on-trend items at affordable prices. According to WWD, the Swedish high-street retailer announced its plans to stage a full fashion show on Feb. 27 during Paris Fashion Week, the brand’s first show in eight years that doesn’t revolve around a special collaboration.
It’s not really news that H&M always has one eye on luxury—albeit the affordable variety—as it was largely responsible for pioneering those high-low designer collaborations we’ve grown so fond of with labels such as Lanvin, Versace, and Maison Martin Margiela.
In recent seasons, the company has also churned out items that cross the threshold, price-wise, of what we’re typically used to seeing at H&M in its newer “Trend” collection, which consists of runway-inspired items crafted from slightly better materials. Recent examples have been a pair of slouchy leather pants at just under $300, and a variety of real angora sweaters that hover around the $80 mark—a jump from the days where $49.90 seemed high for the store.
And let’s not forget that H&M also has plans to launch & Other Stories, a series of higher-end stores throughout Europe that’ll carry womenswear, accessories, jewelry and beauty, so it makes sense the company wants to have a presence during a Fashion Week (although Paris—the swankiest by far—is a pretty lofty move). In Paris, WWD reports, the brand will unveil around 25 looks from its Fall/Winter 2013-2014 women’s collection, under the creative direction of head of design Ann-Sofie Johansson, at the Musée Rodin, which has previously hosted catwalk shows for Yves Saint Laurent and Dior.
