H&M

Erling Persson opened his first shop in Västerås, west of Stockholm, in 1947. It was called Hennes, Swedish for "hers", and sold only women's clothing, at prices made possible by buying in volume. In 1964 a store opened in Norway, and in 1968 Persson bought Mauritz Widforss, a Stockholm hunting and fishing outfitter, which brought menswear into the range and gave the company its full name, Hennes & Mauritz.

The company listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1974 and opened its first store outside Scandinavia, in London, in 1976. Through the 1980s and 1990s it spread across Europe under Persson's son Stefan, who led the company and later its board, and whose family remains its controlling shareholder. The idea stayed simple: fashion and quality at the best price, designed in Stockholm and produced through a network of independent suppliers. The company began selling online in 1998, and its first American store, on Fifth Avenue in New York, opened in March 2000, beginning its expansion beyond Europe.

In November 2004 H&M sold a small collection designed by Karl Lagerfeld in selected stores, and it sold out within hours. The idea of a luxury designer creating for a mass retailer for a few weeks became an annual event and a template for the industry. Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf, Comme des Garçons, Lanvin, Versace, Isabel Marant, Balmain, Moschino and many others followed, as did musicians including Madonna.

H&M also grew into a group of brands, adding the concept labels COS, Weekday, Monki and & Other Stories, the homeware line H&M Home in 2008, and Arket in 2017. By 2013 it had opened its 3,000th store, in Chengdu. Its scale has brought scrutiny of labour conditions in its supply chain and of fashion's environmental cost, and the company has set public targets on recycled materials and emissions while being criticised for promoting volume.

The pandemic and the rise of online-only competitors forced a slimmer store network; in 2022 H&M left Russia, then its sixth-largest market, after the invasion of Ukraine. Helena Helmersson led the group from 2020 until January 2024, when she was succeeded by Daniel Ervér, a company veteran. Nearly eight decades after Hennes opened in Västerås, H&M remains one of the world's largest clothing retailers, and its designer collaborations remain the moment when the high street and the runway briefly meet.