H&M Group'S Brand Other Stories Enters Secondhand And Antique Costumes

Sweden's fast fashion giant H&M group has announced that the group will launch a pilot project in Sweden to sell its brand & Other Stories's second-hand and antique costumes.

Anna Gedda, director of sustainable development at H&M group, said the move was designed to address the growing consumer concerns about the fast fashion environment.

This pilot project is expected to expand to other markets and brands in the next few years.

"This is part of the growing industry as a whole, not only for consumers, but also for reducing the impact on the environment by extending the product life cycle."

In fact, H&M group has tried to sell second-hand clothing earlier, but finally gave up the project, but ASOS, eBay and other fashion e-commerce sites have been selling second-hand H&M clothing.

Anna Gedda said: "under the promotion of the concept of sustainable development, it is now quite different from what was launched in second hand clothing projects."

It is reported that H&M group's latest pilot project partners are Sweden's second-hand trading platform Sellpy, which is creating a "second-hand clothing" section for Other Stories on its website.

Sellpy is one of the investment portfolios of H&M CO:LAB of H&M group's venture capital department.

In recent years, due to the failure to respond quickly to changes in market demand, and timely construction of e-commerce business, H&M group's profits declined, and commodity inventories continued to rise.

But the latest quarterly report released last week showed that profits from more commodities were sold at the original price and profit margins rose, and profits fell better than expected.

H&M group has been actively involved in the cause of environmental protection, reducing the negative impact of the group on the environment, such as using organic cotton, encouraging consumers to recycle brand clothing, and even providing clothing repair services in some countries and regions.

At the same time, the voice of the outside world is becoming more and more pparent. H&M group is also planning to introduce a system to facilitate consumers to check the relevant information about the production lines and fabrics used in brand clothing.

Over the past few years, fast fashion has been developing rapidly. Ireland's Primark, Spain's Zara (SA LA) and H&M and other low prices of brand goods, fast new cycle, so that many consumers are lost after use, resulting in great waste and environmental damage.

UNECE analyst Birgit Lia Altmann once said: "today is the era of fast fashion, with up to 52 new seasons every year.

Compared with 2000, consumers bought more clothes, but the length of each garment was shortened by half, and an average of 40% of clothing was put on the shelf or discarded by consumers after the season.

Despite the extreme concern about the environmental damage caused by fast fashion, the demand for fast fashion has not been significantly reduced.

In the British Broadcasting and television (BBC) documentary "Fashion" s Dirty Secrets (the dirty dirty secret), the fashion industry is described as one of the largest sources of pollution in the world.

It is reported that the annual output value of the global fashion industry is about $3 trillion, but at the same time, it produces 20% of the world's wastewater (the second largest water users in the world) and 10% of the world's carbon emissions (more than all international flights and shipping total emissions).

Although the fashion industry only uses 3% of the world's arable land, the pesticides and pesticides used in cotton planting account for 24% and 11% of the world's total, respectively.

The US fashion resale website ThredUp reported in 2018 that 71% of consumers plan to increase purchases of second-hand goods in the future. It is estimated that total sales of second-hand clothing will exceed 41 billion dollars in 2022.

From 2017 to 2018, the growth rate of online second-hand garment market was 49%, 25 times that of traditional clothing sales.

ThredUp's report also points out that the millennial green shopping idea has promoted the development of second-hand resale industry.

The purchase of second-hand clothing can reduce waste, protect the environment, and cost more. The millennial generation that attaches importance to social responsibility has become the main force in buying second-hand clothing. Currently, 40% of the millennial generation will buy second-hand goods, and 77% of the millennials will choose to buy more environmentally friendly clothing in the production process.

Author: Jiang Jingjin