Recombinant Jeans
The Amorphous Placement of H&M’s Pants
“Where can one buy an economical pair of jeans?” is unfortunately a different question to, “Where should one buy economical jeans?” The latter proposition implies a code of ethics maintained by a brand, and currently ethical jeans do not exist at low low prices. The former question is far easier to answer, with Zara, American Eagle, Target, Walmart, Forever Twenty One and H&M as a sampling of consumer responses from a massive list of active denim and jean-pants retailers.
It is hard to be objective about H&M. Under constant criticism, they have been lambasted for years by deeply disappointed consumers, fashion bloggers, environmentalists and human rights activists. H&M is notorious for their lows: low price point, low quality and low garment worker wages. Consumers are not the only ones who recall the brand H&M when considering cheap clothing. Benny Kuruvilla, a trade unionist conducting the campaign called Asia Floor Wage Alliance, in an article on TheRealNews.com, listed H&M and Gap as example brands that are highly profitable corporations that should be held responsible for paying living wages; and they are just two of many players in a larger culpable industry, generally categorized as Fast Fashion. One of the more notable apparel products that has been under scrutiny over the past handful of years is our beloved staple: jeans.
H&M differs from Forever 21, Zara, and Desigual* largely on price-point and the iterations of jean or denim products they offer. Considering Womenswear alone, Desigual currently offers 22 items ranging from $99 to $225.95, Forever 21 is carrying 90 items ranging from $7.90 to $37.90, H&M offers roughly 100 items ranging from $29.99–$49.99, and Zara is retailing 229 items ranging from $29.99 to $69.99. These brands also differ on quality. The consumer quality ratings of H&M, Zara and Forever 21 products have earned customer ratings of “bad” and “terrible”. Their customer service ratings contain keywords such as “awful”. Fairing a little better, Desigual is “interesting.” Desigual at least seems to feature higher levels of quality, and certainly more cohesive design. While Desigual is not necessarily fast fashion, they cater to a similar free-spirited passionate design aesthetic, and furthermore they have been under scrutiny for the same ethical labor standards as other fast fashion companies, and issues relating to their position on sustainability which undermines their positioning on being “not the same”.
Each brand has their own method of differentiating their offering of stretch jeans. The same style of “High Waist Slim Fit” jeans available on H&M can be found under the name “Mom Jeans” on Zara. Forever 21 simply describes their offering of stretch jeans as “Stretch Jeans”, and Desigual offers a pair of jeans called “Second Skin” as well as a fitting guide for their consumers who might be shopping for a different cut after a long and drawn out decade of legging-jeans.
As mentioned, H&M carries Ladies’ jeans styles numbering around 100. The men’s department offers 61 styles with regular prices ranging from 29.99 to 49.99. As far as styles offered, an overwhelming majority of Ladies styles offered are skinny and slim fit.
If shopping online, occasionally one will come across a product with an extra sticker or tag such as “CONSCIOUS” or “360°”. There is some specious product positioning going on here, where H&M is trying to use a claim that is lacking or no longer relevant as new and noteworthy.
360° Stretch jeans are described as having “innovative multi-stretch function”. “Multi-stretch” is another another way of saying “4-way stretch”. The jeans contain 3% spandex, an incremental increase in the proportion of elastic material in stretch denim. This type of textile performance has been around since the 1960's. While technically there is science behind spandex, the use of elastics in textiles has become ubiquitous not only in athletic wear and jeans, it has also crept into the business casual market. So it feels incorrect to call it innovative.
The green “CONSCIOUS” tag is an awkward call out. If one were to just consider the meaning of the word conscious, there is the general understanding that it means aware, awake, alert, or responsive. “Aware of what” has much to do with context, and further context is not offered until the very end of the description, “Made partially from organic cotton.” A consumer who consciously shops for sustainable products would be perplexed as to why H&M even bothered. The claim lacks directness, and the failure to quantify the amount of organic cotton insinuates an evasion of honesty. There is no way to know at face value whether this product is 20% environmentally conscious or merely 2%.
To attempt fairness, one should ask: what might this implied green conscious appeal look like through the lens of the H&M shopper? It would be easy to say that all of these shoppers must not care. They are purchasing a cheap product for a vast range of short-lived end purposes: from parties to interviews. One of the more prominent reasons for this cheap consumption is H&M’s target market doesn’t exactly have a lot of cash to spend; and one could infer that a distinct sub-population of these consumers own a few precious wardrobe pieces from brands that actually emulate their personal values, whether that value be good design and craftsmanship, manufacturing ethics, or sustainable and organic products. The rest of their closet might contain the guilty mishmash of staples from H&M, Forever 21, Target and Walmart, in the event that they don’t want to go naked the other 5 to 6 days of the week. The “CONSCIOUS” sticker would appeal to this segment of market that wants responsible clothing but cannot afford it, and they may be mildly satisfied with the, albeit a generous term, “moderate” effort on H&M’s part to produce and sell sustainable jeans.
The marketing of jeans by themselves, or jeans as a supporting apparel item is a pervasive practice among retailers of casual clothes. In American brands or styles, jeans are a subtle (or sometimes not so subtle) point of pride. This is true for some of H&M’s campaigns. Yet there is also the feeling that for H&M jeans are another canvas (like tee shirts, skirts and dresses) to mash up and mix up. This makes sense, as they are not an American company, and wouldn’t necessarily value the ideal of denim blue jeans in quite the way American Eagle or Levi’s do. Men’s trousers and chinos; and Ladies skirts, leggings and pants are just as prevalent as jeans in product placement on H&M’s social media. On the H&M website, consumers have the option to shop for items “As seen on Instagram.” In the Ladies department, from a spread of 85 styles, 15 looks included jeans or denim; and on the Men’s tab, 12 looks utilized jeans or denim out of 51 styles.
While it would be wholly appropriate to suggest how the H&M retailer might better position itself using jeans; H&M simply needs to better position itself.
It is hard to get to the heart of H&M, a vast apparel giant with elusive intentions towards transparency, or responsibility, or who can tell? On H&M’s YouTube Channel, videos of pathos-rich storytelling are available to stimulate inclusiveness and awareness, and inspire goodwill towards all people, and recycle to better care for the planet. Instagram and Twitter are exhaustive eyeball buffets of low cost fashion bingeing; the “must-haves” of the day set through a fluctuating filter: calm, loud, essentials, edgy. Between their campaign videos, sneak peeks and daily outfit picks on Google+, H&M has slipped in their Global Change Award: An Innovation Challenge by the H&M Foundation. The competition invites entries for “Circular Fashion” or closing the loop in the areas of materials, business models, and processes for a smarter, sustainable and responsible fashion industry. These scattered precious elements that give H&M a human glow unfortunately do not quite seem like a true brand personality trait. There is a thinness to the quality and detachment between the consumer products and media messages H&M offers.
Continuing with the list of legitimately good intentions, H&M stores invite consumers to drop off any clothes for recycling. This past April the company promoted World Recycling Week with a collaborative number performed by M.I.A. called “Re-wear It”. However, in a promotional article for World Recycling Week, published by H&M Magazine, Anna Gedda delivered a direction-lacking statement presumably about the “conscious” apparel line: “We still have more to do, but already today we make so-called closed-loop products from recycled denim fabric from the garments [consumers] hand in.”
If H&M considers re-positioning as even a moderately sustainable and responsible corporation, they could start with a pair of fully organic cotton jeans that can actually be referred to as environmentally conscious, or take more care to clearly communicate to their consumers the finer points of sustainable production and responsible consuming. If denim jeans or cotton tops are made from recycled materials, this ought to be positioned to reach greater viewership, and invite viewers to read about the process, progress and plan to continue on a path to sustainability. Should H&M openly re-brand as a smart and environmentally aware company, they should do so deliberately, with careful and honest intention and communication, including the message their products and retail experiences impart.
In their own words:
What if we could make a shift from “take-make-waste” to a fashion world where there is no waste?
What if everything could be made again. Knowing what we know today, how would we then create the materials we use, design the processes we utilize and construct the businesses that drive fashion? What if fashion could be truly circular? What if we could reinvent it all.
The Global Change Award by H&M Foundation
Thank you for reading! This post was created as part of the Textile Technology and Apparel Management Program at the NC State College of Textiles. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #NCStatetextiles.
Sources:
“Holding Corporations Accountable for a Living Wage in the Garment Industry”. Published 11 July 2016. Accessed 24 September 2016
“This is World Recycle Week”. H&M Magazine. Published 16 April 2016. Accessed 24 September 2016.
“Tailored Wages”. findings from Anna McMullen
