Style

Matthew Williamson Signs on for next H&M Designer Collaboration

by Terri Potratz | November 25, 2008 at 01:22 pm

1415 views | 2 Recommendations | 7 comments

British designer Matthew Williamson will be next to join the ranks of Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons, Stella McCartney and Viktor & Rolf when he designs a collaborative capsule collection for H&M, slated to arrive in stores Spring 2009. An extensive summer collection will follow within weeks after the spring arrivals, which will contain Williamson's first venture into menswear.

The Williamson ‘signing’ follows hot on the heels of H&M’s most recent, ‘cheap-chic’ fashion coup, the unprecedented collaboration with Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons, which premiered in stores earlier this month.

Williamson, who in addition to masterminding his own label recently stepped down from a three-year stint as creative director of the Florentine luxury brand, Emilio Pucci, is the second British designer to be lured by the mass market appeal of H&M.

Williamson is renowned for his gratituous use of colour and prints, and caters to such celebrities as Keira Knightley, Kate Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kylie Minogue. He will be the ninth designer to join the H&M Designer Collaborations initiative since it began in 2002.

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

Amy Judd

at 14:40 on November 25th, 2008

Oooh, I'm excited about this!

Terri Potratz

at 14:48 on November 25th, 2008

Me too - especially considering the H&M flagship store is right around the corner from our office!

victoria potter

at 14:52 on November 25th, 2008

The designs from his SS09 collection seemed lifeless and either far too plain or way over designed. When someone who designs plainly only has "affordable" materials to work with, the results can be very cheap looking and ugly. We'll see how he does, but I'm not optimistic.

Queens

at 17:34 on November 25th, 2008

I agree, the fabrics they used for some of the recent H&M collections looked very cheap. But the designs that had more details looked even cheaper because the construction quality wasn't there and it was so obvious. If you're going to be using cheap fabric, it makes sense to try and simplify the the design as much as possible I think.