At H&M, Boosting Creativity Through Increased Autonomy and Collaboration

Founded in 1947 by Swedish entrepreneur Erling Persson in Västerås, Sweden, H&M — formerly known as Hennes, meaning “hers” in Swedish — began as a womenswear company, opening its first store in Stockholm in 1952. In 1968, the brand merged with Mauritz Widforss, a hunting and fishing equipment company, which signified the diversification of the brand’s product assortment to encompass menswear and kids lines alongside its core collections.

Now a global retail business spanning 77 markets through a network of more than 4,000 stores, H&M Group is the second-largest fashion company in the world. The group, which today owns Cos, Arket, Monki, & Other Stories, Cheap Monday, Weekday, as well as H&M Home, reported 236 billion SEK in net sales in 2023, up 6 percent from 2022. H&M Group employs 143,000 people globally and the brand’s design team makes up more than 500 individuals.

With a head office in Stockholm but outposts across the globe, seamless creative collaboration is essential to produce at the pace required to meet H&M’s consumer demand. Designers work closely with a dedicated team of product managers, product developers, planners, pattern makers and business controllers in the brand’s design atelier.

A major shift overseen in the design team recently was the removal of decision-making layers to facilitate specialisation and collaboration. This change offers design and creative teams the freedom, responsibility and autonomy to steer the collections in the direction they see fit for the brand, from concept to execution. The design teams have historically also collaborated with Karl Lagerfeld, Maison Margiela, Comme des Garçons, Rabanne, Simone Rocha, and, more recently, emerging brand Rokh.

To learn more about how the company is championing collaboration between and empowering creative teams across the business, BoF sits down with three H&M employees based at the brand’s head office in Stockholm, Sweden: design director Eliana Masgalos; junior designer Robyn Clark; and trend forecaster Dennis Claesen.

Eliana Masgalos, Design Director

What role does collaboration play among creative teams at H&M?

The creative teams collaborate everyday within and across different departments — for instance, as design director of womenswear edition and also of global branding campaign collections, I work with my immediate team in ready-to-wear, but also with colleagues in the main collection, in accessories, swimwear, visual and window design, and especially marketing. So I connect with a variety of creatives starting at an early planning stage all the way through to production — and it gives me so much energy.

What was so special about our Autumn/Winter 2024 collection was how we collaborated across functions, not only within assortments where we design the products, but also to make enhancements to the physical stores and website, to have a consistent story and experience.

You can have a fantastic product, but the online and store experience are necessary to showcase the products in the best way. Collaboration is encouraged directly from our CEO, Daniel Ervér. He has a very clear and warm message about the value of doing things together, for the products but also for the end result and the customer.

How does H&M encourage employees to make creative decisions?

In the beginning, you are a bit scared because it is a big company and you don’t know exactly where to go, but at H&M you can feel confident in your vision. I always try to instil that with my designers and the whole team — to create an environment where they feel safe and secure in having an opinion.

I work with the direction and creating briefs for the collections, so when I do that, I try to inspire but also give them an idea of where we want to go. There are no wrong questions — I want ideas to come from them and to give them creative freedom within the guidelines of the original brief. I want them to see the vision, but I want them to do better than the vision. It is a springboard to create something even more exciting, because I don’t think that one person has all the ideas.

When we start working on our campaigns, we stay true to our vision, but the creative part is that we can then build them out with inspiration that comes along the way. For instance, someone in the team might have seen something inspiring at an exhibition that they want to incorporate. I think that’s the most exciting part of my job — you can build things together and you can complement each other’s visions. It’s about how you influence and inspire each other.

What excites you about the future of working at H&M?

We have access to everything that every fashion brand has — we go to the same trade shows; we have the same trend books. What we want to do now is to push the creative teams further and trust our vision. This is what has changed in the company — we feel more secure about what we are doing and we want each role to be empowered. I think that is what will enable us to have the right products out at the right time. Fashion is very fluid, so it’s important to understand the changes and move with them.

I […] create the briefs for the collections, so when I do that, I try to inspire but also give them an idea of where we want to go. There are no wrong questions — I want ideas to come from them.

Everyone is so excited after our launch for Autumn/Winter 2024. I was in the common area recently and one of our colleagues said, “It wasn’t just about the clothes or the images, it was inspiring because it gave us an idea of what we can be going forwards.” This comment made me feel like we had affected the mood at H&M, the mood of our colleagues, and I hope that we can continue to ride on this feeling, stay secure in our vision and drive forwards, because we have exciting plans for the holiday season, for Spring/Summer 2025 — we’re full of energy right now.

Robyn Clark, Junior Designer

What role does collaboration play among creative teams at H&M?

At H&M, we are one team, so our roles are really determined by what we do day-to-day. As a junior designer, I’m involved with everyone on the design team because we all work together. We collaborate every day — everyone in the team. We all make decisions together — so I make decisions with the input from my pattern maker; my senior designer; my product developer — because every decision goes hand in hand with what the product outcome eventually is.

We even play a part in the decision-making process around where the product is placed in the store, which requires us to really understand the product itself, as well as the entire assortment. But it also requires us to be connected to different creative functions in the business, in order to make the right decisions.

How does H&M encourage you to make creative decisions?

I think collaboration is very important to help with making the best decisions for the products — and also to make those decisions in a commercial and a sustainable way, because in the beginning of the design process, we leave room for opportunity, for improvising and to move things around.

We have space where we can trust our gut as well. So, I think it all starts in the beginning of the process where we are given the freedom to make decisions to support the more solid decisions that we have already made. This really gives us space for growth and opportunity.

How does H&M foster a sense of community among employees?

The culture is so diverse and inclusive. You can see how much diversity there is by the different backgrounds within each team, each department, and I think the culture really affords employees the opportunity to contribute different ideas because we have so many people to learn from. I think our knowledge grows so much here because of all the different backgrounds.

We all make decisions together, […] because every decision goes hand in hand with what the product outcome eventually is.

On my first day at H&M, I joined so many initiatives and communities because there is one for every person at H&M: we have the LGBTQ community; the POC community; the Internationals community — and the Internationals one meets all the time. We do different activities, like they take us out bowling; they take us out to dinner; to enjoy Swedish traditions.

I think that is really important because this is not my home country — I’m from South Africa. Lots of people at the head office here in Stockholm do come from far away. But everybody is so supportive, and H&M is like a home away from home — it’s a community on its own and they make you feel safe and like you’re not alone.

Dennis Claesen, Trend Forecaster

How does the trend forecasting team collaborate with other creative teams and wider business?

As a trend forecasting team of 10 people, we do different things — I personally focus on mega, macro and micro trends in a consumer setting, but also within fashion trends in the industry. My work encompasses looking 10 years ahead of time, right up to the here and now — always trying to be as objective as I can. In the wider team, we have people that focus on colour and people that focus on material, for example.

We work with a big group of external sources — we get information from a lot of different places. Then, we cluster that together internally and share them with H&M in the form of inspiring presentations supported and driven by data.

We share these presentations with the design teams or discuss our findings with management teams, for instance, so they can use our work as a foundation to start a season. We touch so many different levels in the company and sit with the specific teams to discuss certain topics, supporting them on material or colour choices. It’s different every day. Sometimes, it’s also working on a strategic level — so let’s say there’s a management function that has an interest in a specific demographic, we will sit down with them and share what we know.

How does H&M encourage you to make creative decisions?

I feel empowered to do what I feel is good throughout my work at H&M, which I think is about colleagues’ support — there is a huge support system here. Different departments can help you if you’re stuck or if you doubt certain things, so there are people you can check in with. I never feel alone, even though in the actual work and research that I do, I mainly work alone.

Our CEO really communicates the message that we need creativity; we need to stand out. I think in the market you can see that as well — you need creativity to achieve a unique vision.

We have been focusing on improving our decision-making processes. We have already seen designers and buyers receive more responsibility or support in their decision-making, so that everything moves quicker, and the product is better.

How has H&M supported your personal career development?

Ten years ago, I came in as a print designer in the men’s studio department, and then I got the opportunity to become a print forecaster. Then, when the pandemic hit, we realised there was a need for information in an extremely uncertain market. From that point, I specifically started working with mega, macro and micro trends, which is what I’ve been doing now for four years.

I think from high school, any time I was speaking in front of people, I was terrified and I used to stutter a lot. So, when this opportunity came for me, I immediately thought, “I need to do public speaking. This is going to be a nightmare.” But, there are training programmes at H&M on how to learn to speak in public and how to keep your calm.

Those things still stick with me — sometimes I’m standing in front of a crowd and when I’m finished, I think, “How on earth did I do this?” So now, I can tell great stories, show beautiful visuals, and it’s amazing to share your findings and have people come up to you saying it was inspirational, or that they learnt something entirely new.

This is a sponsored feature paid for by H&M as part of a BoF partnership.