Think about how many times you’ve said (or thought) “I want” today. As we ‘like’ Sonam Kapoor’s newest outfit or stalk Kylie Jenner’s walk-in wardrobe on Snapchat, or constantly refresh our Instagram feed to see what’s new every minute, we open ourselves to feeling, more and more, like we simply must possess more things. Buy, use, throw and repeat — it’s the average life cycle of everything from your basic T-shirt to your latest-model iPhone. But when do we give back? And how? High-street juggernaut H&M has some answers.
One might feel skeptical about a ‘fast fashion’ brand claiming sustainability, without realising that they are, in fact, in the best possible position to change the game. As Karl-Johan Persson (CEO, H&M) puts it, “We offer fashion at great value, but not at just any price. We want to make conscious choices easy and accessible for everyone. That’s why we keep working hard every day to make our products and the entire fashion industry more sustainable — from the cotton field to giving clothes that you no longer want or need a new life.”
Boom! Say hello to H&M Conscious, an eco-friendly line of luxe basics that not only looks good, but makes you feel positively saintly (and stylish).
The Line
H&M Conscious is filled with the kind of timeless pieces, they say, every woman should own — from a silk blouse to perfectly cut trousers. Except, a bright green tag will remind you that luxury can be about a lot more than just how the clothes feel on your skin. The line includes pieces in organic linen (made from flax plants that are grown without chemicals), recycled cotton, organic hemp or Tencel. H&M founded the Better Cotton Initiative in 2009, to implement cotton cultivation that is socially, environmentally and economically better for both cotton growers and the rest of us — which means fewer chemicals, reduced water wastage and better working conditions, as well as greater profits for farmers.
Smart Sign
Look out for the Clevercare sunflower motif in the care labels of your H&M garments — initiated by them to help you take care of your clothes while reducing the impact on the planet. Stella McCartney helped introduce the symbol at the 2014 Copenhagen Fashion Summit. In fact, she was one of the first designers to offer a T-shirt made of organic cotton in her 2005 H&M collab, before anyone was really talking about fashion’s role in conservation. Clevercare.info
Waste Not, Want Not
Don’t know what to do with your three-year-old jeans with unintentional rips, or your misshapen jersey T-shirt that seen you through one too many yoga classes? Take them to H&M. They run one of the world’s largest retail garment collecting programs, so you can hand over your unwanted garments (H&M or not) and home textiles to them. In return, H&M recycles them into cotton that can be used in their new lines. “Creating a closed loop for textiles, in which unwanted clothes can be recycled into new ones, will not only minimise textile waste, but also significantly reduce the need for virgin resources,” explains Persson. This fall will see the launch of 16 denim styles, including a teddy-collared jacket and a pair of dungarees, all using recycled cotton from the initiative.
H&M launches its first store in New Delhi on October 2 at Select CITYWALK A-3, District Centre, Saket, New Delhi.
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