H&M has been aggressively expanding in China and now has 27 stores, 14 of them opened in 2009. Much of the retailer’s focus in 2009 was Beijing. Its first flagship store opened in the capital on Qianmen Street in April 2009 and its second store opened one week later in the Xidan commercial area. H&M also launched two new specialty stores in Shanghai and one flagship store in Hong Kong.
H&M entered the Chinese market in 2007 and opened its first specialty store in Hong Kong.
And you can wonder if all that has something to do with the newest development.
H&M has at the latest brought in a slew of big name, high fashion designers such as Karl Largerfeld, Stella McCartney, Sonia Rykiel and Jimmy Choo to collaborate on collections.
The retailer reveals Lanvin, France’s oldest couture house, will be the latest addition.
The collection of womenswear and menswear, designed by Lanvin’s artistic director Alber Elbaz and menswear designer Lucas Ossendrijver, will be available in 200 stores worldwide on November 23.
Lanvin will bring to H&M the hallmarks of their main line collection and hopes to upgrade H&M to luxury. “I have said in the past that I would never do a mass-market collection, but what intrigued me was the idea of H&M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public,” said Elbaz.
H&M creative advisor, Margareta van den Bosch agreed, “Lanvin will bring to H&M a luxurious French tradition that is also modern and playful. It is very much a Lanvin collection, using their cut and tailoring, with lots of focus on form and details for both women and men.”
