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In the ateliers, color wheels, fabric samples and vaults of vintage finds illustrate the theme for spring, which is '50s-style femininity. It's a look that has also cropped up on runways, but according to Sara Wallander, co--head designer for the Divided collection, it's been in the air for a while. She caught onto it last spring when she became obsessed with finding a new pair of jeans. "Suddenly I had to have a pair of really straight-legged, unwashed denims," she says, blinking behind oversize glasses she picked up at a hip-hop store in Tokyo. She wore the jeans regularly to work--partly to convince colleagues they were going to be right for spring 2004, which the team began planning last May.
Others were feeling strongly about ditching baggy cargo pants. "It's a longing for femininity," says Ann-Sofie Johansson, the other co--head designer for Divided. Ladylike Audrey Hepburn dresses, full skirts and twin sets were the next logical step. Denim took a rockabilly turn with selvage. The fall runways substantiated the new direction, but Van den Bosch remains cautious: "We feel very much for narrow trousers, but the customers aren't ready." So H&M is offering intermediary versions as well, and the moment sales data spike, tens of thousands more pairs will be ordered.
Amazingly, every H&M store is restocked daily. A high-volume store like the Boulevard Haussmann flagship in Paris can receive as many as three truckloads of clothing a day. The bulk of the restocking is done between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., so there's almost a science to shopping H&M. Experienced bargain hunters learn that the store displays two of every size at a time. When the mediums are sold out, for example, there will be more the next morning. Employees advise friends to come Tuesday to Friday mornings, within hours of the restocking.
How can H&M's prices be so much lower than competitors'? The enormous quantities ordered from suppliers (H&M owns no manufacturing plants) allow spectacular economies of scale that the company passes on to consumers. The company also credits cost controls--few executives have secretaries, for example. But human-rights groups charge that H&M, among others, keeps prices down by exploiting workers in Third World countries. Like other multinational groups that came under fire in the '90s, the company in 1997 instituted a code of conduct, which all suppliers must sign, and maintains inspectors in countries where its products are made. Still, watchdog groups continue to cite problems, including excessive overtime and lax health-and-safety regulations. Says Carl-Henric Enhorning, director of H&M investor relations: "We believe the best way to have a positive impact in developing markets is to be there and to be buying so that they have money to live on."
A different problem is the widespread perception among even the most enthusiastic customers that H&M's quality is poor and that the stores are difficult to shop. "I'm an H&M bulimic," says Olivia Benier, 25, who shops the Paris store. "The quality is not the best; but the real problem, it's Berezina," she says, referring to Napoleon's costly and chaotic river crossing as he retreated from Moscow. "You have to dig, sort and slave for a bargain. I wear light clothes to go shopping there because otherwise you're so hot you'd lose 50 kilos."