Website Link: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/the-garden-collection-h-and-m-50031510
H&M Spring Collection:The Garden
Many fashion industry are now going green by using renewable materials such as recyclable polyester, organic cotton, organic linen and more. However, there are still many questions behind how this can really effect the environment. I will be analyzing an advertisement in the daily green website page I have found advertising H&M's new spring collection called, The Garden.
H&M is a clothing store for men, women and children. They sell clothes for an affordable price, therefore, this is targeted towards the middle class.
Let's start with the title of this advertisement for H&M spring collection:
The Democracy of Eco -Fashion: Cute Organic Fashion, Now at Affordable Prices
As I analyze this the words being used in the title is quite catching, for example especially the word 'affordable'. The whole point of this is to be eco-friendly, the word 'organic' is in the title; however, it was seem less important when 'affordable' showed up at the end. Me, as a consumer who actually shops at H&M, when I first read this head line it made wanted to go shopping there instead of acknowledging the fact that they are trying to be eco-friendly in their spring collection. Under the title where a little advertisement quote for the spring collection, explaining how much every item seen is under $100. So, instead of promoting economic issues and making people become aware of this problem; it hinder the issue with the words being used to advertise for the collection.
The first thing I saw when I came onto the page was the clothes, there were arrows where you could click to the next slide to see the next look of the collection and in a box next to each slide there were some sort of information on the outfit explaining what made this an eco-friendly look. The information it gave was just what kind of fabric were used, but not how it was made and if the color of the fabrics were natural or organic in any way? I wanted more information on the fabrics, on how it was made and what consumers could do to when they don't want it anymore?
The website for the advertisement was very plain and simple with a white background and very light colors to contrast with the images. What stood out the most were the photos of the clothes, how to style it and make it fashionable and who wore the clothes. The picture that I have chosen on the upper right hand corner are manicans with the eco-friendly spring collection for H&M. If you observe the manicans, they are all very tall and very skinny; this is obviously saying that if you were this outfit you will look tall and skinny or it could go the other way around with the message that these clothes are only for tall skinny girls. However, it does not show any race until in the few next photos I see they only use one model to model off the spring collection and she is a white, blond, tall, american woman. So, what does this say to you? Therefore, this causes another reason to hindering the issue of the environment, because it brings up another problem and that is race.
Overall, there is one thing I found positive or at least used in a good way. The fact that H&M did acknowledge the poor economy in the United States and had the idea of having a spring collection that is affordable to the overall Americans. But than it makes you wonder, where was the clothes made at? Who made them? And why are they so cheap? This brings up another issue of global conflicts such as corporations using the third world countries to make these products for cheaper use and labor.
In conclusion, the words, media and reputation of the corporation's product hinders the main goal that is to help become a more eco-friendly product for the environment, because we care. Instead, we question, do they really care? Or is it for their reputation for the corporation? Also, it brings up other issues such as race and class. Therefore, this was a good idea for the fashion industry, but there must be further research to do.
