H&M Studio, says Ann-Sofie Johansson, the company’s creative advisor, is the “jewel” in the crown, the “most personal” of the brand’s collections. Smaller and more selectively distributed, with slightly higher prices, it delivers “great value for money” while at the same time being more ideas- and narrative-driven. Now, with the introduction of pre-seasons, H&M is expanding on the Studio concept.
This debut resort offering was inspired by a team visit to Marrakech. The city is an endless fount of inspiration for designers, but with the exception of a patchwork of patterned photo prints this collection managed to avoid cliché. Take, the opening look, a cropped jacket with Moroccan-inspired embroidery and curved-seamed and studded jeans: Drained of color, it straddled the line between decorative and minimal. Save for some electric blue, the palette draws its sandy whites, rust brows, and a grayish hue from the desert. The tailoring that has distinguished recent Studio collections was present in the form of a smart shorts suit; it was a stand-alone in an offering that otherwise emphasized ease and flow—although in the hand some of the fabrics look and feel a bit crunchier than one would expect.
The collection leaned into boho without getting giddy about it. There’s “a little bit of a bohemian woman in most of us,” said Johansson. Resort represents a time, she added, when “you want to be more relaxed and have an easygoing attitude.” That “resonates very well with H&M… we have a little bit of a relaxed attitude to fashion.”
