Introducing &denim – H&M’s new jeans brand
There’s clothes. There’s jeans. And there’s a significant difference. While clothes come and go, a favourite pair of jeans can stand by your side, for years or forever. It’s like a long mutual relationship. A love story. This fact is the platform of &denim from H&M, a new jeans brand. The &denim collection will carry approximately a hundred different jeans per season, for both women and men. It will be presented in special &denim departments within H&M stores.
‘Jeans are the number one staple garment for most of us,’ says Margareta van den Bosch, Head of Design at H&M. ‘With &denim, we are improving the fit and quality of our jeans and offering our customers a larger, sharper and more versatile selection.’
&denim will be launched world-wide in September 2005, supported by a six minute film.
‘&denim is not just a collection. It’s a brand. And since a pair of jeans is the only kind of clothing where true feelings are involved, we want to create a soulful brand over time,’ says Jörgen Andersson, Marketing Director of H&M.
The intention is to deliver a modern love story – from a new H&M angle. At the end of the film, the importance of fashion yields to the forces of true love. The soulful music and dance based drama takes place in the streets of New York City. It’s current and exciting. Jennifer Holiday’s And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going serves as the narrative that drives the story, together with When I First Saw You.
Both songs come from the musical Dreamgirls and are performed by Tamyra Gray and Mary J. Blige. Their expressive interpretations of the powerful lyrics tell the story perfectly.
‘There’s enough comedy in advertising today,’ says Jörgen Andersson. ‘And jeans are not about laughs, jeans are love and soul and tears. That’s what we’re trying to emphasize with this tragic and beautiful Romeo & Juliet story.’
The &denim film is the result of a cooperation between H&M Red Room and director/photographer David LaChapelle. The film will soon be aired at cinemas all over the world. Whether it’s going to be a happy ending or not, we’ll leave this unsaid. But regardless: Every pair of &denim jeans is the start of another true denim love story.
For more information, please contact:
Annacarin Björne, telephone: + 46 8 796 57 57,
e-mail: annacarin.bjorne@hm.com.