H&M is expanding its range of sustainable fashion with a new collection, dubbed ‘Science Story, featuring jeans, a shirt, a tracksuit, sunglasses and sandals made using less environmentally damaging materials such as cactus leather and Evo, a yarn produced from castor oil.
The fashion brand has made huge strides in its mission to become more sustainable including stopping using cashmere wools and the launch of its cutting-edge Loop technology, which takes customers’ old clothing, cleans it, shreds it into fibres, then spins them into a new yarn which can be used to create brand new clothing.
Mintel comment:
“H&M’s launch of clothing and footwear made from new sustainable materials respond to growing consumer concerns about the impact of buying new fashion items on the environment. COVID-19 has changed people’s attitudes and behaviour when shopping for fashion. Research for the upcoming Womenswear report shows that 30% of female clothes shoppers agree that buying from environmentally friendly/sustainable brands has become more important when buying clothes for themselves compared with 12 months ago. The shift is even more notable among young consumers, which are H&M’s target customer, rising to 43% of female Gen Zs. Developing new sustainable fabrics from materials including cactus and castor oil will help H&M stand out as one of the more innovative clothing retailers and drive the overall fashion sector to become more circular. It will also allow H&M to gradually diversify its supply chain and create alternatives to the use of cotton in light of the growing media coverage of the exploitation of cotton workers.”
