H&M Comes Out With Pride Collection
H&M will showcase its support of inclusivity with a new collection and campaign that will launch globally on May 31.
The capsule line of Pride apparel and accessories will be sold in 148 U.S. stores and select other retailers H&M outposts around the world as well as online. Ten percent of the proceeds from the sale of the collection will be donated to the United Nations Human Rights Office Free & Equal campaign.
This marks the first time the retailer has created a “cohesive collection” dedicated to the support of LGBTI community, said H&M spokesperson Emily Scarlett. The line of T-shirts, crop tops, tank tops, shorts, cutoff jeans, sweatshirts, sweatpants, hoodies, caps, fanny packs and socks feature rainbows and pastel colors with graphic prints such as equality, pride and love. The line has a definitive Seventies flair.
“H&M believes in everybody’s right to love who they want,” said Andreas Lowenstam, H&M’s head of men’s wear design. “We hope people can use H&M’s Pride collection to celebrate their belief in equal love.”
In addition, the retailer has partnered with Out magazine on a Pride Out Loud influencer campaign featuring Olympic freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy, pop music artist Kim Petras, model and activist Gabrielle Richardson, rapper and drag entertainer Aja, and model and musician Shaun Ross.
Scarlett said the retailer has worked with Kenworthy and Ross in the past so including them in the campaign made sense. The others were chosen to showcase “great diversity,” she said.
Like the capsule collection, the campaign will launch on May 31 in the 148 stores in the U.S. as well as select stores in Canada. The images will be used in the windows and featured in the departments that will house the collection. They’ll also be used on the H&M and Out web sites where a series of videos that Out has produced will speak to each influencers’ experience as members of the LGBTI community.
Scarlett said H&M has always prided itself on offering “fashion for everyone” and the Pride collection speaks to that commitment. “Equality, diversity and inclusivity have been deeply rooted in our values for a long time.” She said the collection is intended to “celebrate the diversity” of the company’s customers and staff while “celebrating the joy of fashion.”
H&M debuted the collection at an event in Brooklyn on Tuesday night where guests walked under a rainbow arch into a room lit up in a pastel rainbow spectrum. There were Pride themed drinks and food and a performance by Aja.
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