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H&M pulling a hattrick with third designer line on sale

After featuring highly successful designs from top fashion designers Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney, H&M this autumn invited high fashion wonder Victor &Rolf to spice up their autumn sales. Victor& Rolfs prices are usually up to 10 times higher than what is currently on offer in 250 stores in 24 countries at H&M. For example, a tux that would usually go for $1,200 is available at a fraction of that for $250. No wonder that stock was yet again flying off the rails and grabbed out of shop assistants arms even before it hit the shelves. A wedding dress that Victor&Rolf designed for H&M was sold out within the first hour.

With events like this, H&M is following a strategy to keep ahead of the competition in terms of innovative clothing design. While its fiercest competitor, the company Inditex which squeezed H&M out of its position as Europe`s largest clothing retailer, prefer to copy successful designs of big fashion names, H&M tries to raise its profile by getting up and coming and edgy names to work for them.

This raises the profile of both the company and the designers. When a spectacular action like this is announced, it attracts trendsetters and others that might not usually shop at their stores. Other clothing stores are quickly following suit. Topshop is hiring Kate Moss to design a line for them, GAP is featuring dresses by French designer Roland Mouret and Target Corp. has featured a line from Isaac Mizrahi.