Heritage
A house, in its own words
Erling Persson opened the first Hennes store in Västerås, Sweden, in 1947. The name, a contraction of Hennes ("hers" in Swedish) and later Mauritz, reflected the early merger with a men’s clothing shop in 1968. Over the next decades the chain expanded across Scandinavia, entered the United Kingdom in 1976 and launched its first US store in 2000. By the mid‑2000s H&M operated more than 1,300 outlets worldwide and had become synonymous with rapid style turnover at accessible price points. The company’s first foray into fragrance arrived in 2012 with Deep Red Velvet, a scent that blended warm amber and red berries and signalled a new product category for the retailer. Subsequent releases such as Peony (2013), Cotton Wood (2014) and H&M Santalum (2018) built a modest but consistent catalogue. In 2023 H&M announced a partnership with Swiss perfume manufacturer Givaudan, unveiling a 25‑fragrance collection split into three thematic groups. This collaboration marked the most ambitious expansion of the line, introducing scents like Camo Blend Nude Canvas (2026) and Personal Star (2024). The partnership leverages Givaudan’s research facilities while keeping H&M’s design direction at the forefront. Throughout its history the brand has maintained a focus on rapid product cycles, a practice that now informs the turnover of its fragrance releases, allowing the scent range to reflect current fashion trends while remaining financially approachable. The evolution from a single‑room women’s shop to a global fashion and fragrance house illustrates H&M’s capacity to translate its core business model into adjacent categories without sacrificing the speed and accessibility that defined its early success. The fragrance programme follows the same democratic principle that guides H&M’s clothing: scent should be easy to try, easy to wear, and easy to replace as trends shift. The brand treats perfume as a wearable accessory that can be layered with outfits, encouraging consumers to experiment rather than commit to a single signature. Sustainability is woven into the development process; H&M reports that many of its recent scents use responsibly sourced ingredients and that packaging incorporates recycled glass or plastic where possible. The creative brief for each launch originates from the seasonal clothing line, with colour palettes and mood boards informing olfactory choices. This cross‑disciplinary approach ensures that a summer dress collection might be accompanied by a citrus‑forward fragrance, while a winter coat range could be paired with a richer, woody scent. H&M also emphasizes transparency, publishing ingredient lists on its website and providing guidance on skin safety. The overall vision is to make fragrance a fluid part of everyday style, removing the aura of exclusivity that often surrounds perfumery and inviting a broader audience to engage with scent as a form of personal expression.