→JAPANESE VERSION: 未来に「Conscious Collection」はいらない！ H&Mのサステナビリティの歴史と描く未来
Catarina Midby, Head of Fashion and Sustainability Communications, wearing a jacket from "Conscious Exclusive" Collection.
The term “fast fashion” emerged during the mid-2000s, and since then, “cheap clothes are cheap for a reason” and “low price tag items are not sustainable because they do not last” have become common phrases. However, simply stating that fast fashion is bad would be a generalization, and not definitively true.
With its “conscious collection” and several other environmental initiatives, H&M stands as proof that sustainable fashion at an affordable price is indeed possible. H&M has recently introduced a new labeling system entitled “Clever Care” that allows customers to become more aware of making sustainable fashion choices when shopping at H&M.
How were they able to integrate fast fashion business with sustainability? We spoke with Catarina Midby, Head of Fashion and Sustainability Communications at H&M, about the history and vision for sustainable fashion.
Q. How did sustainability originally become an issue for H&M?
H&M has always tried to be responsible. However, in the 90s there was a lack of knowledge in this area, and we only had the code of conduct and chemical restrictions to follow.
In the early 2000s, General Trends Group and I began to develop H&M's sustainability model in light of increasing environmental issues. The impact of such issues became particularly apparent in 2004, during the tsunami took place in Thailand and series of hurricanes around the globe. There were colleagues that lost friends and relatives from these disasters. Suddenly, we were aware that we were directly affected by these effects of global warming. Due to such issues, we at H&M wanted to take action and learn how we could adjust our design process to offer our customers more sustainable choices.
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