What Steps Have Lee And H&M Taken To Promote Sustainable Fashion?

Sustainability is becoming increasingly relevant across all industries, including fashion. This is primarily because customers have become environmentally aware and want to protect the planet at all costs. To contribute to this and promote sustainable fashion, Lee H&M have joined hands. 

When it comes to fashion brands that want to promote sustainability, their aim is to establish a sustainable supply chain. The collaboration between the two renowned fashion brands, Lee H&M, has been the talk of the town. 

Know the Brand: H&M

H&M is a Swedish international retail company established in 1947 by Erling Persson in Västerås, Sweden. As a major clothing brand, H&M constantly discovers trends and styles that are fashionable and affordable. The company’s range caters to all age groups, including high-quality clothing and accessories for males, females, teens and children. Now H&M is shifting towards manufacturing a slow fashion product range in collaboration with Lee. This product range will comprise sustainable clothing featuring workwear accessories. 

Know the Brand: Lee 

Lee Apparel Company, Inc. is the United States’ largest denim producer. The company is the market leader in women’s jeans sales and also has a large share of other apparel categories. Lee took advantage of the sales surge in fashion jeans all through the 1960s and 1970s. In the first part of the twentieth century, it purely focused its manufacturing on office wear. Despite a significant decline in its market share during the 1980s, the firm rebuilt itself. Their adoption of cutting-edge new denim processing and finishing processes made them a legendary market leader.

Lee and H&M: The Collaboration

Lee H&M is a dynamic collaboration that promotes sustainability in design. The brands took a holistic approach, keeping a keen eye on every step for denim manufacturing. The fabrics used include H&M’s first 100% recycled cotton denim manufactured from 80% post-industrial garbage and 20% post-consumer discarded materials.

There’s also cotton-free denim produced from renewable human-made fibers, as well as water-saving dyes and reduced-impact denim washes. These dyes and washes have been third-party certified for decreased water, harmful chemicals and overall energy usage.

In this collaboration, the environmental consequences of the methods used to manufacture the clothing pieces from start to finish will be assessed by an authorized panel of experts using the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The study’s findings were published on H&M’s website on 4 February 2021, to mark the collection’s debut.

The Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) data will show the impact of each piece of denim clothing on water, CO2 and energy right from raw resources, to the end of usage. This campaign/collaboration will feature models, artists and social activists such as Zinnia Kumar, Avery Ginsberg, Alima Lee, Peter Dupont and Deba, along with exclusive remarks from Lee global brand president Chris Waldeck. 

The collaborative campaign has brought out the best in both organizations. Both firms have a good level of expertise and enthusiasm for creating change in the clothing industry. Due to their commitment to sustainability, the two brands have attempted to find the best approach to realize their shared goal.

 

To promote this sustainable clothing range, Lee H&M have launched a wide collection of clothes for men, women and kids. Let’s see what items are featured:

For Women:

• Wide and baggy trousers with a 90s throwback feel.
• Lee’s famous Rider jacket is reconfigured with an extended cocoon silhouette.
• For the entire Lee H&M style, denim corsets offer a feminine touch.
• Dungarees and pullover shirts provide the essential industrial vibe, coupled with Texloop RCOT Sustainable Cotton fabric items.

For Men:

• With Lee’s originality of design, workwear jackets are a wardrobe necessity for the men’s section.
• Five-pocket jeans with relaxed fit that are produced from 100% recycled cotton, and carpenter jeans that are manufactured from 100% Tencel Lyocell cellulosic sewing threads and water-saving colors.
• There are also mens’ wear dungarees, denim bucket headwears, and handbags, as well as heavyweight jersey products.

For Kids:

• With relaxed cut jeans in a workwear vibe, dungaree outfits and jeans with cargo pockets, the Lee H&M collection for kids has the 80s and 90s vintage feel.
• There is also a kids’ version of Lee’s famous Rider jacket.
• There are jersey pieces that play with Lee’s logo legacy with loose T-shirts and hoodies in purple and cobalt blue.
• Knit beanies and a small sports bag complete the collection.

Introducing a clothing range with a vintage vibe to encourage people to buy sustainable clothing is a really innovative idea. And this Lee H&M collaboration will work wonders.