Swedish fashion retailer H&M will open new stores at The Glen Shopping Centre, Glen Waverly and Northland Shopping Centre, Preston in Melbourne, Victoria, later this year.
Hans Andersson, country manager for Australia and New Zealand, said they are looking forward to expanding in Melbourne and reaching new customers with the opening of the new stores.
H&M already has 29 stores in the country with new stores soon to open at Adelaide, SA and Queensland.
With the fashion industry facing more scrutiny, H&M is continuing to market itself as one of the most eco-conscious fashion retailers out there.
The retailer said they are in the “planning stages for future garment collecting campaigns” and added that in Australia, the Garment Collecting initiative was a hit.
An H&M spokesperson said H&M Australia has collected approximately 237,000 kg of unwanted garments and textiles since the campaign was introduced in the country.
For last year’s campaign, H&M has launched its garment collecting initiative with a film directed by Chrystal Moselle. H&M started its Garment Collecting initiative in 2013 and relaunches it every year.
The campaign allows customers to bring unwanted garments and textiles, from any brand and in any condition, to any H&M store. The retailer’s goal is to increase the amount of garments collected, every year, so that they reach a total collected volume of 25,000 tonnes per year by 2020.
The campaign raises awareness on the importance of garment recycling.
H&M said it wants to “close the loop” on fashion by giving customers an easy solution to hand in unwanted garments so they can be reused or recycled through H&M’s garment collecting initiative. By doing so, less garments would go to landfill.
H&M has also recently introduced a new store concept to revive foot traffic and launched this at their recently opened Paris flagship store at rue La Fayette.
In the new store, H&M has introduced the Take Care service to inspire customers to care for their garments.
The new concept includes Guidance, where H&M has created some information for its customers on how to best care for clothes, shoes and accessories; Products, which introduces the Take Care line that features laundry products, stain remover, repair patches, emergency repair kits, and sneaker wipes, among others; and Services, which features an H&M Take Care Area with two permanent services for customers to repair and customise garments with embroidery.
However, H&M stated it doesn’t know whether it will be introduced in Australia any time soon.
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