Moschino x H&M: A Fashion Affair to Remember
On a cold and bright November morning, H&M officially dropped its collaboration with Moschino, opening their doors early to those committed enough to brave coming into the crowded store. Moschino, known for its over-the-top looks and heavy labeling, isn’t the first designer label to collaborate with the fast fashion brand. In fact, H&M releases a limited collection with a designer brand every year, previous collaborations including Versace, Alexander Wang, Balmain and most recently, Erdem. The collaborations retain the signature aesthetic of the luxury brands but reach new markets with the prices that, while higher than most H&M clothing, are much lower than the designer’s typical range.
Left to Right: Jeremy Scott, Ann-Sofie Johansson and Gigi Hadid
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The Moschino x H&M collection is exactly as outrageous as one would expect from Moschino’s Coachella-loving creative director Jeremy Scott. The collaboration ranges from a shiny gold leather biker jacket to a combination lock inspired handbag to a padded pet jacket, so your dog can have the same drip as the Migos. Priced from $25 all the way up to $500, the collection sold out many pieces incredibly quickly, though a few items still remain on the website (unfortunately, the DJ Donald Duck sweatshirt is no longer available). Fans of the Moschino look were quick to grab what they could at the prices that typically wouldn’t associate with such a high-end brand. This leads to the question of how, exactly, H&M combines its fast fashion with luxury items to release its yearly campaigns.
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One thing that inherently comes with the high prices of designer brands is an elite reputation, simply due to the fact that the general public can’t afford their items. The downside of this becomes the fact that their audience becomes extremely limited, and certain designer brands aren’t even well-known within the general population. When collaborating with a brand such as H&M, these designer labels are not only able to expand their reach to fans who might not be able to typically afford them, they are also making their name known with people who might not recognize them. At the very least, even if their name is known, they are establishing their aesthetic within a market that they are not usually present in. The brand is offered a clear benefit from the massive amounts of publicity that big companies such as H&M can provide, and H&M gets to bolster its own reputation with their connection to a designer label. H&M also relies on the fact that when someone comes into the store or goes on the website looking for the specific collection, they’ll most likely also find something outside of the collaboration to purchase as well.
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The consumers, on the other hand, aren’t getting quite the amazing deal that it feels like they are. The drop in price correlates with a drop in quality, so while you might be getting a Moschino sweatshirt at an H&M price, you’re also getting a Moschino sweatshirt in the odd sizing and quality typical of an H&M item. The limited availability of the collection also lends itself to a hype that often overshadows the collection itself, and the purchases become more motivated by the reputation than the actual design (though I still find myself thinking about the beautiful florals of the Erdem collection).
Regardless of what motivates the purchase, the collaborations still tend to do extremely well, with many pieces selling out by the end of the day they drop. So while we revel in the gaudy Moschino x H&M collaboration, we can also eagerly anticipate a future H&M and Supreme collaboration that will make the heads of Hype-beasts explode around the world.
