The World's Biggest Fashion Retailer Is Spreading Avant Genius to the Masses
H&M isn't a regular retail store. It's a cool retail store. And fashion's brightest talents know it.
Now, it's no secret that many "mall brands" are on the up & up, and H&M, one of the most worldly labels out there, is taking things to new stylistic heights by leaning hard on progressive designers and avant-garde collaborations.
On November 13, H&M announced Glenn Martens, Diesel's current creative director, as its next big designer collab come late 2025.
For the unfamiliar, Martens is the masterful mind behind Diesel's finger-on-the-pulse revamp that transformed the brand from international denim peddler into must-see fashion spectacle over four short years.
Perhaps most famously, though, Martens was behind Y/Project's surge in relevance and general flyness. Through savvy collaborations with big brands like UGG and some seriously provocative creations — the things Martens did with denim were transformative enough to earn him that Diesel gig — Martens turned Y/Project into fashion's premier IYKYK brand.
In particular, Marten's has a knack for warping staple garments into artful statement pieces, with jeans warped by a million extra cuffs and tanktops wrapped around torsos like togas. And there's almost certainly no better transferable skill when it comes to working with retail giants who have a seemingly unlimited quantity of staples.
So while he's not yet a household name (unless you live in a house full of well-dressed fashion fanatics), Martens is a solid fit as an H&M guest collaborator.
See, over the past several months, H&M has been bolstering its cool factor through progressive collaborations like the edgy night-out fare it created with Rabanne, figure-hugging Mugler layers, and a well-coated team-up with LVMH Prize winner Rokh from earlier this year.
And, notably, when H&M recently reissued some of its best designer collabs, it selected some of its most adventurous team-ups, including Maison Margiela, Simone Rocha, and COMME des GARÇONS.
And it's not just these collaborations that highlight H&M's expansion towards the avant-garde.
H&M's qualitative style has also undergone an of-the-times upgrade, as seen by the brand's elevated menswear collection, Atelier, which coincides with the rise of its more elevated clothing line, COS.
As exciting as this collaboration is — Martens described it as "very me, very quirky, experimental," during Business of Fashion's Voices 2024 panel when it was announced — it's far from H&M's first rodeo.
Thus, even if it may initially seem counterintuitive to use niche designers to amp up H&M's brand identity, it's actually a genius way to source cutting-edge ideas for the world's largest fashion retailer, aligning it with the industry's truest tastemakers.
