H&M goes curvaceous

Scandals and consumer pressure

It is not a coincidence that H&M is going
away from the super skinny models: two recent events are the cause for this
turnaround. First there was the Swedish blogger Rebecka Silvekroon, who had
uploaded photos of plus-size mannequins almost three years ago.

At first there was little response to the
pictures, but in March of this year they were picked up by mainstream media and
spread all over the world. Only, it was said that they showed new mannequins
being used in shops of H&M, while the photos were actually taken at Swedish
competitor Ahlens and were used by Silvekroon to denounce the practices at
H&M.

Last month a second scandal brought to light
that Swedish fashion agents were recruiting models at one of the largest
hospitals for patients with an eating disorder. Girls as young as fourteen, who
were being treated for anorexia or bulimia, were invited for a photo shoot.

New direction?

The combination of those facts caused a lot of
commotion and increased the pressure on H&M to use ‘more naturally
proportioned women’ for its campaigns, just like its Swedish competitor Ahlens does.

The stir had good results, because if some see the choice for
curvaceous Beyoncé as face – and body – for the new summer campaign as
innovative, then they will surely think the same about Runk. The Swedish
fashion giant also deliberately did not label the collection she models as ‘plus
size’.

H&M now says to hope other fashion retailers
will also start using more women with ‘a healthy proportioned body’ in their
campaigns.