An exhibition bringing together H&M’s designer collaborations opens at Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum in Stockholm on Thursday 15 October. Titled Iconic collaborations, it features garments from 30 international designers who have created collections with the Swedish retailer, and it will run until 4 April 2027, giving visitors almost six months to see it.
The story starts in 2004, when H&M launched its first designer partnership with Karl Lagerfeld, at the time creative director of Chanel. That collection opened an era in which clothes by famous designers became available to a far wider public, and the format has returned regularly since, with each new partner bringing its own codes to H&M’s shops. Among the names that followed were Maison Martin Margiela, Kenzo, Comme des Garçons, Isabel Marant and Stella McCartney, and the show also includes pieces from Giambattista Valli, Viktor & Rolf, Simone Rocha and Balmain.
According to the museum, this is the first time the collaborations have been shown together in one place. Visitors can compare signatures side by side, from Viktor & Rolf’s bridal gown to the prints that Matthew Williamson kept returning to. Vanessa Gandy, chief executive and director of the museum, described the project as an important part of recent fashion history. “This is a major chapter in our contemporary fashion history,” she said.
Gandy said the museum wanted to create inspiring rooms and a playful selection that draws people in, rather than a strict archive display. Visitors, she said, can learn to spot details such as the hearts used by Viktor & Rolf and the dots of Comme des Garçons. Photographs from the exhibition by John Scarisbrick show the Valli, Rocha and Balmain pieces staged across the galleries alongside the famous wedding dress. The rooms are arranged to let the collaborations speak to one another, so that a Simone Rocha dress can be read next to a Balmain jacket or a Valli gown.
The exhibition covers more than twenty years of a partnership model that brought designer names to H&M’s high-street customers, and it gathers in one Stockholm museum clothes that were originally sold in stores around the world. For many visitors it will be the first chance to see pieces from different collaborations next to each other and compare how each designer adapted their signatures for a mass-market audience. Iconic collaborations is open at Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum until 4 April 2027.
