Donatella Versace to design new H&M collection

On 17 November, H&M will start selling an “affordable Versace collection” designed by Donatella Versace. A second collection will be available starting from next January. The Swedish fashion chain is trying the big guns to stop the falling consumer spendings.

A typical Versace collection

The collection will use “lots of colours, prints and leather”, said la Donatella, “so the designs will be typical Versace”. Margareta van den Bosch, creative advisor at H&M, said that “Versace is one of the most important brands of recent times, and their collection for H&M will be glamorous and flamboyant”.

Donatella Versace joins an impressive list of designers who worked with H&M in the last few years, including also Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Comme des Garçons, Jimmy Choo and  Lanvin.

Disappointing half-year results

H&M will need the new collection to save their year, as their half-year results suffer from high cotton prices and low consumer spendings. While the turnover rose only 2% to 27.6 billion Swedish crowns (3 billion euro), earnings for the March-May period have gone down 18% to 4.3 billion crowns (471 million euro) – “challenging market conditions”, according to the Swedish powerhouse.