Fashion Review: H&M
H&M didn't make a good first impression when they landed in South Africa after they tweeted in November 2015 that they used white models to portray a "positive image". This was in reply to why there were no black models featured on their posters, just days after the launch of their first store in South Africa.
The bad publicity did not deter shoppers to attend the launches at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town in October 2015 or Sandton City in Johannesburg in November 2015. The Sandton City store is always busy whenever I go pass and the V&A Waterfront store is reported to be H&M's third busiest in the world.
But what is all the hype about, is there something that I'm missing?!
I've been in to the store probably three or four times now and nothing has caught my eye for me to buy for myself, my wife, or my son. The prices are reasonable, I wouldn't say they are ridiculously cheap like people portray them to be though. There are other international brands in South Africa that are selling products cheaper than them and, I feel, of a better quality.
The store, for me, is always crowded almost like a bazaar or a market, where everyone is trying to find a good bargain. There is never any order in the store and this could be one of the reasons why I never feel like purchasing anything from them.
However, this week they had a very good initiative from April 18 to April 24 during world recycle week, H&M were collecting your old clothes, linen or any home textiles and would give each customer two discount vouchers for each bag that they dropped off. Each voucher had 15% discount on any purchase at any of the H&M stores. We were getting rid of old clothes and this was a good initiative so we went and dropped off a few bags. We received our vouchers and thought we will try once again to see if there was anything worth buying.
I'm no fashionista so I guess I'm not up to date with the latest fashion trends but I definitely know H&M is not for me.
