H&M Divided - Fall/Winter campaign 2010-2011

The Swedish label H&M pursues its ambition to stay on top of the latest trends via its junior line, Divided. However, given the images of the fall/winter 2010-2011 campaign, it seems that their design offices had some difficulty sounding out l'air du temps...

H&M calls upon the most en vogue faces of the moment and regularly succeeds in attracting la crème de la crème of designers; yet despite the enthusiasm generated by their headliners, their offer is often disappointing.

The latest Divided publicity campaign is a perfect example: the casting may be almost perfect (Abbey Lee Kershaw, Karmen Pedaru and Patricia van der Vliet are currently considered stars in the modeling business), but the collection's lack of pertinence still comes through.

Between the pseudo Givenchy prints with a Gareth Pugh touch (loaded down with a strong dose of cheap), outdated animal prints and other pieces that are more vulgar than sexy, H&M hardly flatters the image of youth. Under the pretext of diffusing a trendy and easily accessible fashion, the Swedish giant falls into the clichés of its genre, forgetting to give its collection a minimum of subtlety.

Although H&M will surely propose a few viable pieces, we remain perplexed in the face of their ad campaign's officially outdated 1980s stylistic choices.

Rather than accenting a wardrobe à la Rihanna, it would have been much more pertinent to develop the "denim/plaid/stripes" line sketched in the image of Daniel Jackson, which would have been susceptible of giving life to the pretty, preppy-casual combinations.

This disappointing campaign tends to confirm the strange sensation one has more and more often when entering into an H&M - the impression that the demands of fast retailing no longer allow for offering real collections.