Hot on the heels of a super successful collaboration with Comme De Garcons H&M is launching a capsule collection with designer-to-the-stars Matthew Williamson. The collection will be launched tomorrow, April 23rd in 200 selected H&M stores worldwide, including the flagship Oxford Circus store in London.
Williamson graduated from Central St Martins in 1994 with a degree in Fashion Design and Printed Textiles, and three years later launched Matthew Williamson Ltd with Kate Moss, Helena Christenson and Jade Jagger modelling his first collection in September 1997. Williamson now shows at New York fashion week and is a favourite with many-a-celebrity from Cat Deeley to Gwyneth Paltrow and Sienna Miller.
“It is an incredible opportunity to be working with H&M, creating a ‘Matthew Williamson for H&M’ capsule collection. I love the fact that H&M has created a new phenomenon in fashion through the pioneering concept of collaborating with high-end designers to create one-off limited edition capsule collections. I am thrilled that my creations for H&M will be accessible to and hopefully enjoyed by so many people around the world,” says Williamson, who will also design menswear for the first time with the collaboration.
With Topshop preferring it’s celebrity designers, successfully launching Kate Moss for Topshop every season, H&M is definitely beating is taking a different route in securing lucrative-designer collaborations with this latest venture with Matthew Williamson, having formerly created collections with Stella McCartney, Roland Mouret, Roberto Cavalli and Viktor & Rolf. High street-designer collaborations are very much a modern phenomenon on the British high street, capitalising on the idea that anyone can wear catwalk looks for a fraction of the price.
Williamson’s collection will bring his signature ‘boho chic’ look to its widest audience ever. Doors open at 9am, and those who go should brace themselves for the sharp elbows of fashion hungry shoppers in the midst of a credit crunch, wanting the Williamson look for less, with shocking-pink embellished camisoles retailing for £34.99 and silk/cotton tuxedo jackets for £69.99.
“Matthew has such a good eye and a way for working with prints that he mixes up in a new way. When he combines these things, you get a very contemporary London look,” explains H&M’s creative advisor Margareta van den Bosch. “He is fantastic with piling on colour – it’s a very stylish collaboration for H&M, and very much in line with the way we’re thinking about fashion for spring/summer.”
