Fashion just won’t be as much as a priority and the concept of reasonless clothing will become more prominent with some higher end brands already adopting that. Brands will be driving consumer made content. This has already been seen by brands such as Topshop, because they cannot go shoot content themselves. The reposting of content by influencers or pretty much anyone with an Instagram account means that they are posting consumer led content. This won’t just drop as people will start relying more on buying products seen on the everyday person rather than a model.

The shift on how people style their own pieces, rather than having a stylist working with models links to consumers more. However all of these ideas are not predictions, just possibilities. We don’t know how long this will affect us for. Or how quickly we will bounce back after this. Or what will happen to other industries which could impact on fashion. What do you think will happen to the fashion industry? Personally week 3 of this project was quite difficult and I haven’t made much progress on my project. I found it hard to gain motivation and collate any research around the retail landscape. I found going got walks and doing exercise helped me!

For the images within this project I wanted to make sure that they fit into the H&M concept but also fit with my InDesign layout. I started by pinning Images and Quotes to a Pinterest board (link above) and this helped me understand what I wanted the layout to look like. I made sure I used some H&M images from their website, along side some I found online and pinned to my board. I also had a little look on Fashion Revolution and used some from their website too. The Pinterest board I made also helped me with my Reflective Blog on Instagram.

The layout of my project for H&M was mainly based off of their website and their Instagram account. I went with neutral tones and using black text, so it stands out. Once I started pinning images into my Pinterest board this helped me to create my InDesign set up for this project. Summary of week 4: I finally got into creating work on my project on my InDesign document and collecting all the research and putting it into a padlet area. This is just so I can keep track of all my research and hold it in one area. Just seeing my project come together on InDesign gives me more motivation to get my project underway.

Throughout the pandemic, obviously H&M aren’t able to shoot new garments on models or release drops they way they may have wished, so they have created the hashtag #AtHomeWithHM. This is an amazing way for consumers to promote the brand/ garments at home themselves, this is also a way of the brand getting content for their feed. H&M have been sharing and posting peoples looks in their garments from home, instead of sharing the items on models. This also gives the brand free advertisement and encourages customers to buy the items, it feels much more natural and fun, seeing how customers wear and style the items!

H&M currently have business with 41 different countries and on their website, you are able to see what they specify in and products they make for the brand. H&M deal with 750 independent suppliers manufacturing products for their brands. 1.6 million people work in the factories of business partners, 62% are women 38% are male. Some countries include China, Sri Lanka, Romania, Netherlands and many more! They specify from Accessories, Beauty, Homeware, Jersey, Knit, Nightwear, Swimwear, Underwear, Socks, Woven and to Footwear too.

During the pandemic some brands have not agreed to pay their suppliers for unwanted drops or cancelled orders, however as H&M have agreed to pay their suppliers during this tough time. At the end of March 2020, H&M had told its garment suppliers it will accept and pay for the shipments of goods which have already been manufactured or which are already in production. The move comes as a huge relief to suppliers in it’s key sourcing hubs, of which Bangladesh is the most significant. It also sets a precedent which other retailers will now be under huge pressure to follow. Among the most significant of these – in terms of orders cancelled from Bangladesh – are Primark, Inditex, Bestseller, VF Corp, C&A, M&S and Target Corp.

I carried a survey on my personal Instagram account and I focused this on future trends for the retail landscape specific to fashion. I asked 5 different questions which were based around my future trends research and my followers voted and shared thoughts at the end too. In total there were 832 votes across the 5 questions and this helped me to gather thoughts about the trends and if they would be successful in the future for H&M. These were the final results of the questions, after 24hours of being on my Instagram story. Week 7 summary: I have made great progress throughout my project and have managed to get majority of it finished now, I thought I would take a survey and ask my followers what their opinions were around future trends and this really helped me to close off my project. I also learnt this week to take time off and rest because I had been doing lots of work constantly and not resting.

H&M could definitely launch more online resources and events that customers can take part in even after stores reopen. Consistency is key and carrying on the huge online trend will help H&M’s sales and customer focus. However, while brick-and-mortar retailers were already investing in ecommerce and reshaping their store economics to become more profitable, massive store closures may force them to rethink their physical assets. H&M and most retailers will be thinking, “What if this happens again?” They may see store footprints shrink further, meaning less staff required to operate them. Customers want better in store expierences to get them into the stores, things like food and drink services, instagram filters, mirrors which put items on you even experiential elements like VR or designing entirely new concepts.