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By Nishita Mehta-Jasani (That's Shanghai)
Updated: 2007-06-29 10:41

Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) is the ubiquitous apparel retail titan of European and American high streets, be it on London’s Oxford Street, Boulevard Haussman in Paris, Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Milano or New York's Fifth Avenue. The chain, famous for runway styles at pleasant prices, has announced its presence in the Chinese mainland by opening two stores-a four-story shop on Shanghai's fashion artery Huaihai Lu and one at the Superbrand Mall in Pudong.

"Style is something you have and fashion is something that is new, comes suddenly, and disappears fast as well," says Margareta van den Bosch, 62, the head designer at H&M. And that is precisely what stores like H&M have become famous for-offering chic, styles with rapid turnaround resulting in a phenomenon that the design fraternity calls 'fast fashion'. But Van den Bosch has never liked that term, believing it doesn't do justice to the design process. "If you did things in four weeks for 1,400 shops it would not be serious work," she says.

The tall, confident designer has been H&M's grand dame, design guru and fashion oracle for the past 20 years. She and her team of 100 designers meticulously plan each collection with color cards, themes, patterns and fabrics that are coordinated more than a year in advance. "The design team is very important to us and all our designers are very well educated," says Bosch.

They come from all over the world; from Holland, Sweden and South Africa to the US and Japan. The entire team works from H&M's design center in Stockholm, popularly known as the "white room".

The numbers associated with H&M's designs are mind boggling-100 designers and 60 pattern makers work with 700 suppliers and 20 worldwide production centers to create apparel for 1,300 stores in 28 countries, translating into USD 10 billion in annual sales. H&M's two-fold design process is instrumental in creating these statistics and involves long-term planning of collections, along with a real-time design response. "If some garment turns out to be more of a trend than we thought [during the season], then we buy that again," says Van den Bosch, whose team introduces new designs each week, based on the season's trends.

Street fashion, haute couture, trends from the '50s and clean lines from the '60s are examples of a few recent avenues of inspiration for the H&M team. "We get inspiration from everywhere, but the most important thing is to make it your own way," says Van den Bosch, adding that she likes to listen to customers and create lines that strike a good balance between latest trends and the basics. While the brand is international in its persona, it is very Scandinavian in that it is "democratic and practical," she explains.

And democratic it is. H&M's latest baby-doll dresses, printed silk blouses with fashionable leggings, drainpipe jeans and prim-cut suits are all available at egalitarian prices. Over the past few seasons, these collections have received creative input from elite fashionistas like Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney-and created a buying frenzy. More recently, music icons Madonna and Kylie Minogue have been involved in the design and promotion processes. Clearly, working with celebrities has helped maintain fervor for and interest in the brand.

For the Asian market, other than offering smaller sizes, no special changes have been made to the collection as "it is important that H&M keeps its own personality in each country," says Bosch. Besides, "fashion has become more global, more international" and similar trends are appearing the world over.

This season sees a sexy capsule swimwear line by Kylie Minogue, launched in Shanghai two weeks before the rest of the world with a much-hyped appearance by the pint-sized pop star at the opening party in the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Coordinated swim concepts of sarongs, bikinis, towels and flip-flops in a bold blue-green print mark the collection.

Multi-colored plastic beads, hair bands and chunky bangles with tie up beach dresses are also prominent this season. Printed satin, pleated silks and bell sleeves appear as current eveningwear looks. For children, the trend leans to pastel colors and delicate florals; while for men, solid colors and stripes are in abundance. Van den Bosch's favorites of the Spring/Summer 2007 collection are definitely the "Trend collection and the Kylie collection", and as for what's in store for next season, she jovially declares-"That's a secret!"

H&M
Location 1: 645-659 Huaihai Zhong Lu
Location 2: Superbrand Mall, 168 Lujiazui Xi Lu, Pudong