H&M's 2016 Conscious Exclusive Collection

[Fashion]

These days, it's important to conserve the environment while conducting business and it's good to see companies like H&M making an initiative towards conservation. Their 2016 Conscious Exclusive Collection merges a sense of history with modernity, and was launched to coincide with the opening of the exhibition Fashion Forward - 300 years of Fashion at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, to which it pays homage, and of which H&M is the exclusive sponsor. The collection conveys an idea of painterly and sophisticated elegance.

The H&M design team has delved into the museum’s collections of archival fashions in order to pick up key pieces from the last three centuries of haute couture. The result is a contemporary and artistic collection that is soulful, progressive, conscious and truly unique. The collection will be available in approximately 180 stores worldwide and online from 7 April 2016.

"Working with innovative sustainable materials and ornate embellishment, the collection is a layering of references, shapes and textures topped off by intensely decorative accessories and deco-inspired bijoux,” says Ann-Sofie Johansson, Creative Advisor at H&M.

The fluid and easy silhouette revolves around languid dresses, arty kaftans and sculpted skirts. Prints add a dash of surprise, turning dresses into trompe l'oeil paintings or sculptures. A long ball gown with a deep neckline features a marble draping print; a liquid dress is adorned with a slice of Botticelli's Three Graces. Short dresses and painter blouses ooze nonchalant sophistication, creating an electric and eclectic short-circuit between present and past.

“One of my favourite pieces from the collection is the mini asymmetric dress that was inspired by a painting by Gustave Moreau. I love the mix of a conscious, sustainable fabric and an old painting. It’s great to be able to have sustainable clothes that still look red carpet-ready,” says Julia Restoin Roitfeld, the face of the campaign.

Materials include organic silk, hemp, recycled linen and Tencel® blends as well as new innovative materials such as beads and rhinestones made from recycled glass and Denimite − a material made out of recycled worn-out denim, which H&M is the first fashion company to use.

Also new for this season’s launch of Conscious Exclusive are three wedding dresses − a feast of lightness and embellishment materialised in dreamy, draped lines, for the bride wanting to be as beautifully dressed as she is conscious.