How H&M Democratized Luxury Fashion

• 02:18–03:17 | The Making of a Fashion Creative, Growing Up in Sweden
• 03:17–04:40 | Swedish Values and the Culture of Collaboration
• 04:44–06:00 | How London’s ’80s Club Culture Changed Her View of Fashion
• 06:06–07:18 | When a Personal Passion Becomes a Creative Career
• 07:56–09:31 | Four Decades at H&M, Staying Curious in a Changing Landscape
• 09:40–11:43 | The Karl Lagerfeld Collaboration That Democratized Luxury Fashion
• 11:43–12:53 | How Designer Collaborations Bring Creative Worlds Together
• 12:53–13:59 | Beyond Designer Labels, Rethinking the Meaning of Luxury
• 13:59–15:30 | Cultural Relevance and Creative Instinct in Choosing Designer Collaborations
• 15:46–18:19 | Commercial Appeal vs. Conceptual Design, What Audiences Want from Fashion
• 20:23–23:15 | H&M Studio and the Search for New Creative Possibilities
• 23:39–28:00 | Fashion, Image-Making and Technology, Rethinking the Runway with Nick Knight
• 28:00–32:35 | Fashion’s Responsibility to the Next Generation of Designers
• 32:35–33:14 | Instinct and the Qualities of Great Design
• 33:14–34:17 | Why Optimism Matters in Creative Culture
• 34:17–35:34 | Finding Your Voice in a World of Constant Visual Influence
• 35:34–37:07 | Illustration and the Importance of Craft
• 37:07–40:09 | AI, Human Creativity and the Future of Design
• 40:09–41:15 | Can Fashion Become More Individual in an Era of Globalization?
• 41:15–43:15 | Social Media, Algorithmic Echo Chambers and the Future of Trend Forecasting
• 43:16–44:17 | How Brands Participate in Contemporary Culture
• 44:17–46:27 | The Cultural Connections Between Fashion, Art, Music and Literature
• 46:27–47:00 | What Is Contemporary Now? The Timeless Value of a Good Conversation

Notable Quotes: 

• On Why She Has Stayed at H&M after 39 years  “I really still love the whole idea of H&M, that we are creating great products that are still affordable, and people can look good and feel good about themselves.”
• On the Creative Culture at H&M  “I think I met some of my best friends at work. H&M is all about teamwork as well. We’re never alone in a decision or anything. You can do it together. We do this together. We do it for the customers.”
• On Never Fully Mastering Fashion “That’s the thing that is still why I love fashion. I’ve been in fashion for so many years, but still, a new season is still a new season. Even though you have experience, you can never fully learn it.”
• On the Origins of the Karl Lagerfeld Collaboration “I don’t think anyone at H&M realized what we started with that collaboration. We had decided on doing three collaborations from the beginning. We wanted to have the icon, which was Karl, and then a young upcoming female designer for Stella McCartney, then something a little bit more conceptual with Viktor & Rolf. We actually had that idea, that we would do three and that would be enough.”
• On Why the Collaborations Continued  “Every year I think we talk about, should we continue? And the answer is yes. First of all, the customer loved it, but also I think now everyone else is doing a lot of collaborations as well. It feels really weird to end them.”
• On Democratizing Creativity “Some of the brands can also do actual things they can’t produce when they’re working for their own brand. We’re really doing a value-for-money thing, and if they should do them with their own brand, it’s another price point and they might not even be able to do it. So they can actually try their creativity together with us in another way.”
• On the Meaning of Luxury Today “I think it’s more and more getting over to things that you can’t buy really. Things we’ve been taking for granted for the last decades. Democracy, freedom of speech, time. Spending time with friends and family, away from screens, maybe, or whatever, from social media. I think it’s things like that.”
• On H&M Studio as a Creative Laboratory “With H&M Studio we can really push for a certain idea. We can be more conceptual, we can push for innovation. It is a label within H&M, within the H&M world. It plays an important part, I think, just to show also what we actually are able to do.”
• On Experimentation and Building a Brand  “We are really exploring different views and sides of fashion, I think. But at the same time, we’re really building as a brand, and you have to have some sort of stability. So we’re trying to get a more consistent look of it as well. It’s really exciting. I’m so much looking forward to the coming seasons and to build that in a new way.”
• On Nick Knight and SHOWstudio “He has such a sensibility for the details and for the whole story and the rhythm and the flow and the different moments. We were really high after that meeting because we felt that this is going to be really good. It’s going to be major.”
• On Reinventing the Fashion Show “We wanted to have something more than just a runway show. We wanted to have the music thing in there, the kind of immersive moment. I think it’s another way of pushing innovation and pushing the way that you actually can show fashion without losing the fashion part.”
• On H&M’s Responsibility to Emerging Designers “I think it’s one of the projects we are doing at H&M that I’m most proud of. I think we have a responsibility of actually supporting young designers, being a big company with lots and lots of knowledge and experience and being able to give that to a young designer or young talent. I think that is what we have to do.”
• On What Makes a Great Designer “Sometimes it’s just a notion. It’s just the feeling you get when you look at something. I think curiosity is one of the things. You’re curious. You want to see more of this designer. Or when you see something and you get really excited, or you get energy from looking at something. It’s so hard to say what that is really.”
• On Optimism and Creativity “I think we need more optimism, because if we’re not optimistic, what is the point of doing anything really? For me, I’m optimistic every time we start a new season. When you start with fashion and everything is possible, then I think I’m the most optimistic. This is going to be the best season ever.”
• On Finding Your Own Voice “Try to find your own voice. Try to find what’s unique about your designs and what you want to give to the world and to the customers. Try to find that voice within yourself. Why did you start with fashion? Really nurture that. It’s so easy today to look at this and that, and you can look, of course, but you still have to be true, even more true to yourself.”
• On AI and the Need for Designers “I think some people actually think that AI could do everything, and that is so wrong. I think we need designers more than ever. But I think that AI is a really good tool. It’s a creative tool as I see it.”
• On AI as a Creative Tool “Now we’ve got AI, and that’s another, even more enhanced creative tool. But I think you still have to be a designer. You still have to know what you are asking for. It’s a way of getting to try out more ideas, and to really scrutinize ideas and to be able to get the best idea.”
• On Craft in an AI World “The more tech savvy we get, I think we need to craft more than ever. It’s still a craft. We still design our garments for people to wear, and we still have to know about craft. You can’t just do the AI thing and then not know anything about craft.”
• On the Future of Fashion “I hope it will be even more creative and more unique. I have the feeling that a lot of things look the same today because it has become such a big business, and I think sometimes that makes it harder to try out new ideas and be really creative and really innovative.”
• On Making Room for Independent Designers “I hope new young designers and brands are going to have their time in the limelight as well, and that they can blossom. I hope it won’t only be about the big conglomerates and about big brands like H&M. I hope designers can be able to make it in the industry as well, because then we see more creativity and more unique things and more sustainable things.”
• On Instinct, Data and Experience “I think it’s a combination of the two. I would love to say just instinct, because I think you have a certain instinct as a creator, but at the same time, I think they feed each other. For me, intuition is built on knowledge and on experience. So we need both. If we talk about selling figures, that is more history in a way, and the intuition is more the future, maybe. And we need both. When they meet, that is something we can capture.”
• On H&M’s Relationship to Culture “When I started at H&M, we never talked about the cultural moments. It was just fashion. We did fashion, we did collections. But the cultural moment is something that we talk about constantly now. We want to be in that conversation. We want to be relevant, not only when it comes to the fashion part, but also being relevant in the culture we’re living in and being able to capture the zeitgeist.”
• On Art, Fashion and Inspiration “Art. Music. Especially art, I think. I wanted to become an artist once upon a time as well, so maybe that is the thing. But I love art. I think art is really, for me anyway, very inspiring. The whole art scene. I think art and fashion have also become a little bit closer than they used to be.”