When H&M first opened its doorways in India in 2015, it wasn’t simply one other worldwide model getting into the market — it was a cultural second. The queues that wound across the Choose Citywalk mall in Delhi signalled a brand new era able to embrace international tendencies. Ten years later, with greater than 65 shops throughout 29 cities and a robust on-line presence, H&M has change into a part of on a regular basis style in India.
H&M’s main attraction has been its skill to bridge the hole between aspirational style and affordability. For city youth in India, it supplied an opportunity to purchase into tendencies with out the designer price ticket. Their garments, for each women and men, have been seen as a step up from native, unbranded choices, offering extra up to date designs.
As Helena Kuylenstierna, director, H&M India places it: “Our goal has at all times been to democratise fashion, to liberate style for the numerous, not simply the few. In India, this implies breaking down the previous partitions between excessive style and on a regular basis put on, making international tendencies accessible proper right here, proper now, for everybody.”
Now, because it marks a decade within the nation, the model is extending its providing past garments and equipment to launch H&M Magnificence, which fits stay on October 2 throughout shops in India and hm.com.
Inside an H&M retailer
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For years, the retail big has supplied magnificence throughout international markets, even opening devoted shops in Oslo and Stockholm, however that is the primary time the idea arrives on Indian shores.
The road-up is extensive: over 200 merchandise spanning make-up, perfume and sweetness instruments. Suppose Satin Icon Lipstick with its creamy end, Mad for Matte Liquid Lipstick, the lash-defining By no means Ending Mascara, and the helpful Do-it-All Stick Blush that works throughout cheeks, lips and lids. For many who lean in direction of perfume, the Eau de Parfum assortment brings vegan formulations and longer-lasting put on. Apparently, some merchandise have been created domestically to higher go well with Indian climates and pores and skin tones — a transfer that feels each considerate and strategic.
From the brand new H&M Magnificence line
“This launch is a milestone in our journey, made much more particular as we have fun 10 years of H&M India. It displays our dedication to creating style and sweetness extra accessible and reaching extra style aspirers throughout the nation,” says Helena
Vogue collaborations
A significant a part of H&M’s India playbook has been its headline-grabbing collaborations with homegrown designers, and these have been as polarising as they’ve been worthwhile. Essentially the most talked-about was in 2021, when Sabyasachi Mukherjee unveiled his ‘Wanderlust’ assortment with the model. It bought out globally inside minutes, underscoring the urge for food for his aesthetic at an accessible value level. But it surely additionally drew sharp criticism. Many felt the collaboration betrayed Sabyasachi’s long-standing dedication to gradual, handcrafted luxurious, lowering it to a mass-produced template and diluting the exclusivity that his model had constructed.
The 2024 tie-up with Anamika Khanna drew much less warmth, nevertheless it didn’t solely escape scrutiny. Anamika’s model too is rooted in couture-level detailing and artisanal craft, which inevitably raises the identical questions: does translating that into quick style undermine the very worth these designers stand for? Nonetheless, the collaboration was seen as extra in sync with H&M’s aesthetic, maybe as a result of it leaned right into a fusion of world and Indian design quite than making an attempt to copy couture at scale.
Helena maintains that these ventures are central to the model’s cultural positioning: “Collaborations are about taking an surprising step collectively. Our partnership with Sabyasachi was a second of true magic, it proved the unimaginable demand for a mix of Indian luxurious and accessibility. It was a cultural flashpoint. The gathering with Anamika Khanna was a good looking evolution of our strategy. It highlighted that our greatest collaborations occur once we actually harmonise international imaginative and prescient with native craft, delivering collections that really feel genuinely rooted and related to the fashionable Indian shopper.”
Sustainability initiatives
Working underneath the banner of quick style means H&M can not escape questions on scale, waste and overproduction. To keep up its social licence to function, particularly in a key sourcing market like India, the model has leaned on sustainability initiatives, each inside and past the provision chain.
The H&M Basis’s Saamuhika Shakti programme, launched in 2020, works with native NGOs in Bengaluru to empower casual waste pickers. Their efforts now feed immediately right into a traceable recycling community, with tens of millions of garment buttons partly manufactured from PET bottles collected by way of the initiative. Equally, the model’s long-standing Water Stewardship undertaking with WWF India — operating since earlier than 2015 — addresses one of many textile business’s most urgent issues: water utilization and air pollution in dyeing and processing hubs.
In 2023–24, H&M partnered with SEEDS on Group Resilience tasks in Assam, increasing its remit to local weather adaptation and catastrophe preparedness. These initiatives replicate a model eager to sign accountability to India’s more and more acutely aware younger shoppers. But the strain stays: whereas the tasks are essential, the dimensions of quick style’s environmental price far outweighs any single intervention. For H&M, the problem is much less about asserting focused pilots and extra about proving that accountability might be embedded into the core of a high-volume, trend-driven mannequin.
Localisation and festive put on
From the brand new festive assortment
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From the brand new festive assortment
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H&M Dwelling
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H&M has additionally made strides in localising its product vary past simply designer collaborations. The launch of its festive collections is a chief instance. The primary festive assortment was launched in 2019, marking a vital step in direction of country-specific designs. Characterised by vibrant colors like deep reds, golds, and emerald greens, and materials like satin and sequins, these collections have change into a go-to for inexpensive, trendy festive put on. The ‘Brighter Than Ever’ marketing campaign, usually used for these collections, focuses on a way of hope, celebration, and pleasure, positioning H&M as a vacation spot for up to date celebratory put on. The inclusion of H&M Dwelling merchandise in these festive choices has additionally allowed prospects to increase the model’s trendy aesthetic to their dwelling areas.
The arc of H&M’s journey has been outlined by adaptation — from providing trend-led style at accessible costs, to collaborating with Indian designers, to launching festive collections that talk on to native sensibilities. With the arrival of H&M Magnificence, the model is signalling that its ambitions transcend clothes, into way of life and cross-category retail. But the query stays: in a market that’s each price-sensitive and more and more acutely aware of sustainability, can H&M stability its fast-fashion DNA with the deeper cultural and environmental duties that include being a mainstream international model in India?
Revealed – September 25, 2025 01:16 pm IST