Hi again! Welcome back to my blog!
Today, we shine a spotlight on H&M, which, if you didn’t know, is a high street fast fashion company. I’m sure many of us have been there (including myself) and see the store as at the forefront of the latest trends.
H&M appears to have been doing relatively well in terms of brand transparency, as seen from its ratings in the Fashion Transparency Index 2019, where H&M was among the Top 5 companies in terms of publicly accessible data from 2017 to 2019 (see pp 34).
If you shop online, H&M’s online store has a new transparency tool that allows you to trace the factory in which a garment has been made (even the factory addresses!), and indicates the number of workers in each factory. (source) I tried googling one of the factories that made this Jersey Top (click on “Sustainability” at the bottom of the page) and I could even find the telephone number of the factory! Hopefully, this helps us make better choices.
Sounds empowering?
But not everyone would sacrifice time to trace the supply chain. From a survey my Project Work group conducted in 2017, we found that 62.5% of our respondents, mostly teenagers, have never heard of eco-fashion. This means that they probably are unaware of the issue of fast fashion. Given this scenario, the transparency tool may not be useful without consumer awareness.
Have you ever heard of H&M’s Conscious line? It’s an eco-friendly label under H&M. You can distinguish them from “normal” fast fashion by their green tags. (source)
But why sell only a handful of eco-fashion in every store, when you can change the entire range to sustainable fashion?
I wonder why they don’t make a separate in-store section for the Conscious line. Customers should be empowered to make a conscious choice about what they want to buy rather than just coincidentally choosing something eco-friendly. After visiting their outlet at Grange Road in April this year, I emailed the company suggesting this. I received a reply saying that they would “definitely” consider my suggestion. But when I visited their outlet at VivoCity three months later, nothing had changed.
From an observational study conducted in H&M by my Project Work group, we found that most customers just bought sale items with no interest in the Conscious line; salespersons did not promote it either. None of the customers observed purchased Conscious apparel.
Is the Conscious line just a way to stay relevant amidst the eco-craze (think metal straws)? Is it to keep up with other fast fashion brands’ eco-labels (Zara’s Join Life, Mango’s Committed)? Or to placate sustainable fashion activists?
Or does H&M foresee the rise in demand for transparency from a growing number of conscious and critical consumers?
In conclusion, we should all think twice before we buy our clothes. Due to the complexity of the fashion industry, no company is perfect. Say ‘no’ to greed and the impulse we may feel to buy something on sale. Trends fade, anyway.
Till next time!
Cheers,
Evelyn 🙂
Hello! I’m so glad you brought up this topic! I think this maybe part of green-washing, a marketing tactic adopted by a lot of fast fashion companies to target a different group of audience that are just learning about eco-fashion! Perhaps you can talk more about it next time? It’s a very interesting phenomenon that many people don’t realise, including me!
Hope to see you writing more about eco-fashion!! I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on it :)))
Hi Sirong! Thank you for your great idea. I’ll consider writing a post on that. I think greenwashing in the case of H&M could be the claims it makes on its Sustainability Reports, and the whole idea behind its Conscious line. (correct me if I’m wrong) But I have some faith in the company as it says in its 2017 Sustainability Report that it aims to have all its apparel made of recycled or sustainably sourced textile by 2030.
I’ve also heard of the term “greenwashing”, but I forgot about it while I was writing. Thank you for bringing up the interesting phenomenon.
Evelyn!!! I really enjoyed reading this post because it provokes a lot of questions in my mind and it convinces me that you’re really upset about the the way “popular” apparel stores are handling eco-friendliness. It makes me think you can venture into eco-journalism on the Economist. Upload more, and share them with me! Anyways one of the questions you asked, I can share my thoughts about it. I recently went shopping with my friends (I window-shopped, they bought) and based on my perspective, I think my friends represents the way a ‘typical’ teenager minds purchasing clothes for themselves. They’re always into price-budgeting which doesn’t allow them an access to think twice regarding the purchases of an eco-apparel, and this sucks because it is inevitable that eco-apparels will be more costly than non-eco ones. With the way that it’s made (not as efficiently as fast-fashion apparels) it seems harder for companies to mass produce eco-apparels. Thus, I think the right answer to the question why they don’t fully display racks of eco-apparels (like organic cotton-made shirts) in the shop is because with the low demands, the shop’s selling prices will increase, maybe 10-20% higher than its previous selling prices. And this will cause people (like my friends who price-budget; this is a common trait amongst people) to turn away. It results the shop to have a negative profit if that happens. Surely, if awareness increase, and people put their awareness into action, maybe the demand will increase and price of eco-apparels will be lowered. But it’s easier said than done because people would be less willing to “start the trend” when the eco-apparels are currently expensive. But it’s what my opinion is of this. Hopefully it makes sense, haha! (And I apologise if it doesn’t)
El
Hi Eliza! Thank you for your comment and I appreciate your compliments :”) Yes, I remember from our survey that one of the most popular criteria our respondents chose for purchasing apparel was price. Which is pretty ordinary because teenagers like myself don’t usually have an enormous allowance. I guess the choice of voting with our dollars for eco-fashion may not always be available to all of us, including myself. On a similar thread, the higher price of eco-apparel may worsen class divisions in our society. Maybe that’s something we can all think about.
Also, thank you for your suggested answer for the organisation of Conscious line apparel I was talking about in my post. I don’t know how long it will take for prices to go down, or if lower prices would even be sustainable to pay workers fairly etc(correct me if I’m wrong, I’m no economist). From my shopping experiences, I feel that as of now, it’s just not feasible enough for youth like myself to buy eco-fashion.
Heyy Evelyn, I am really inspired and empowered by your dedication to eco-fashion through your efforts !
I agree that H&M should invest in promoting their conscious line in their Singapore stores such as what you mentioned, consolidating all the eco-friendly clothes together instead of making shoppers likes us to treasure -hunt it around.
Furthermore, they should place infographic posters in every fitting room and around the stores to inform more teenagers like us.
H&M in Singapore can even incorporate experiential retail by having pop-up booths in their stores to educate shoppers on their campaign and highlight the difference that shoppers like us can make thorugh our decisions we make. An example is a pop-up H&M conscious lounge in London: https://www.formroom.com/commercial-interior-design/concessions-pop-ups/hm/
Besides, I personally feel that their conscious line pricing is quite affordable as we can get a Jersey Top for $8, what?! Not only that, a jeans for $35?!! Why not for me when I can save the earth 😀
Therefore, I am grateful that large companies capable of economies of scale are
investing into eco-fashion and I am really keen for the H&M conscious to take flight here in Singapore!
While the time is still ticking by just relying on these companies, like what you said, we should think before we buy to reduce shirt wastage by buying our needs instead.
Another idea is to recycle so as to decrease the demand for clothes and even decrease the amount of electricity and chemicals used to produce our clothes in the factories.
So I am feeling empowered to not only support eco-fashion but to also take steps to reduce my purchases and recycle my old clothes at the same time:)
Cheers to more discussions like this!
Hi Denise, thank you for your encouragement!
I wonder if H&M is afraid of being questioned for not switching everything to sustainable fashion. They may fear criticism for being hypocritical, you know, for knowing about the need for sustainability and still adopting a fast fashion business model.
Your idea for educating people like us is especially interesting because I’m also making an infographic for a school project. I wonder if I could apply that to making an infographic about fast-fashion…
I think infographics are useful, especially because visuals can grab our attention very easily. It also presents the most important information very concisely.
I agree that not all the Conscious apparel are that expensive, at least for myself. Maybe I should do a more detailed study on the price difference. I guess the idea of economies of scale allows H&M to lower prices for Conscious apparel, but I wonder if they are still paying garment workers a fair wage.
Thank you for sharing with me about H&M in other countries! I never thought about looking towards their overseas approaches.
I wonder, is changing our individual choices enough to transform the mainstream fashion industry? I believe change can truly become a reality only if those with more power like governments and corporations make take decisive steps towards it. Like effective laws that should be enforced on workplace safety. I was thinking about this because I recently read that the Accord for Building and Fire Safety in Bangladesh was almost shut down by the government. You can more about it here:https://bangladeshaccord.org/updates/2019/05/19/accord-reaches-resolution-on-continuation-of-its-work-in-bangladesh
Cheers,
Evelyn 🙂
Hi Evelyn,
I was unaware of these new initiatives by H&M. Probably because I don’t shop there. And that’s because I won’t shop for fast fashion – indeed, in your 1st post, you seem to argue that fast fashion is problematic.
And so, I’m curious about 2 things (and by all means, feel free to explore this in a new post if you want).
1) Given your apparent stance (which I might have misinterpreted, so do correct me if I’m wrong) that fast fashion is unsustainable, did you find credible evidence that H&M is not, in fact, a fast-fashion giant ?
2) One of the criteria for its “conscious products” is the use of organic cotton, which H&M claims is sustainable. What is organic cotton, and is it REALLY more sustainable than conventionally grown cotton ?
Thanks,
jc
Hi Dr Coleman! Thank you so much for your comments and suggestions 🙂
I am pretty sure that H&M is really, at present, a fast-fashion brand, because that’s what many sources described H&M as while I was doing my research. Nevertheless, they seem to be taking an approach that may be improving its social and environmental impacts. Maybe they will be changing their business model in the future.
As for evidence of H&M being a sustainable fashion company, I did find one article that describes H&M as sustainable, but I am inclined to think that the article is too optimistic or simply outdated. The link is https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/9/6236/htm
As for the sustainability of organic cotton, it’s something relevant to me as well, because I have purchased from an eco-fashion company that specifically uses organic cotton; it is important that I question their claims about being sustainable. My choice of buying organic cotton has also been critiqued by an eco-conscious friend, and she really got me thinking about this topic. Thank you for the idea, I will discuss this in a future post!
Cheers,
Evelyn
hello Evelyn! This is an interesting read as I myself am an avid fan of this topic as well. While more clothing companies have been jumping onto this bandwagon of sustainable clothing lines, including The Editors’ Market which I work at, I do agree with you that could all these be mere tactics for companies to stay relevant, without being truly committed to these ‘beliefs’. I recently came across this reading that points out just as companies are jumping onto this bandwagon, us consumers are doing the same. As we decide to join the trend of buying the entire conscious collection for the sake being perceived as an ‘environmentally friendly’ consumer, that may defeats the purpose of making conscious decisions in comparision if I was to purchase a single clothing item (that is not part of the conscious collection) which i love, thus still making a sustainable choice in a long run. what are your thoughts? 🙂
Hi Jia Yuan, thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog!
I’m so excited to hear that I have a fellow sustainable fashion enthusiast in my class! Wow, you must really have great insider knowledge about the fashion industry. 🙂
Yes, I totally agree with you on that. The point is to use only what we need. Even eco-fashion has a carbon footprint.
Which is why I think buying second-hand is has a lower carbon footprint that eco-fashion itself. But then again, buying second hand can be pretty inconvenient. So consumers like myself often feel pretty frustrated when shopping. I guess one way to avoid these situations is to wear your clothes in different ways (like make them versatile, increase the ‘wear’ of your outifts) so that you don’t end up having to buy new clothes so often. I hope my thoughts are useful to you. I got the idea for this from this blog at: https://meghanashleystyling.com/home/2019/9/19/all-about-balance-a-little-pop-vs-over-the-top
Cheers,
Evelyn 🙂