By Malay Desai
From: Sweden, by Forsman & Bodenfors
Swedish fashion company H&M, as part of its mission to encourage recycling of clothes, has launched a new film voiced by singer Iggy Pop. It is filled with one-line commands that go against the order of fashion rules, such as ‘wear brown shoes after six’, ‘wear a hat indoors’ and ‘wear socks and sandals.’ By casting blogger Pardeep Singh Bahra, designer Loza Maleombho, artist Daniel Lismore and model Tess Holliday among common faces in odd, colourful attire, the film seeks to convey the message of ‘no rules in fashion’, before giving out a CTA to leave unwanted clothes at any of its stores to be used for recycling.
Why we like ?
Hey Hennes & Mauritz, what’s with September and you guys? This time last year, the Swedish clothing giant showed us a stunning film on buying their conscious denim’ collection. Now, the bracket is even bigger. ‘Buy more, but throw it all back to us’, this new campaign says.
As fast fashion, or the clothing equivalent of ‘McDonaldisation’, took over the world’s retail stores in the past decade, the issues that cropped up were the strain on natural resources, the ethics on labour and waste generation, or in a word, sustainability. The simple act of recycling saves many ‘virgin resources’, one of them being scores of litres of water, and this message, if voiced by a brand than an NGO, has a bigger impact.
The voice here is of Iggy Pop, who himself appears in-between shots of fashionable people doing things. It’s signature heavy, but it conveys funny, rebellious messages – asking women to dress like men, elders to dress like teens, men to wear pink, women to show their panty line and more. ‘Beat convention, screw the norms’ – not the first time a fashion label is saying this. What’s the difference then?
Eventually, through simple, factual copy, H&M packs in the bang – that it’s helping you recycle. You can walk in to any of its 3,300 stores and drop your old clothes, because just ‘a T-shirt saves 2,100 litres of water.’[While you’re at the store, you could also check out their new collections, right?]
H&M has reportedly practiced what it preaches – this campaign is backed by efforts such as partnering with DoSomething.Org and connecting withcollege students. It has claimed to have already recycled 260 billion pounds of unwanted clothing.
Back here, while there are dozens of small brands playing the ethical, sustainable pipe but our Big Bazaar customers are not too much into that.Let’s hope the future of clothing features one prominent colour, green.
(To watch this film,feed this link in your browser - bit.ly/ViewTube21Sep)
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YOUR REGULAR DOSE ON THE SHIFTS IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA UNIVERSE
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