Brooke Glasford
Some of the most lucrative moves designers have made in the past were to partner with a fast fashion store and release a capsule collection that’s available strictly through that brand.
This has become one of the highlights of H&M’s retail year. For over a decade they have joined forces with Karl Lagerfeld, creative director at French fashion house Chanel, Versace, Alexander Wang, Balmain and my favourite of them all Lanvin. Doing so allowed H&M to capitalize on each design house’s brand awareness, brand presence and their strong luxury reputation, and marry it with the commercialization and massive reach of a fast fashion giant.
The sell through for these collaborations was spectacular, in most cases 75% and upwards in the first twenty-four hours. Fashion fiends were lining up in front H&M stores up to twelve hours before the launch, and the website often crashed from the vast increases in traffic.
