H&M - Heavenly & Marvellous (H&M)

Member Name: missie123

Product:	H&M
Date:	13/03/04 (7109 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great ranges, Great prices, Great clothes

Disadvantages: Takes time to shop

H+M ? High-priced and meagre? Horrible and mean? Heavenly and marvellous? Ok?just about run out of ideas for that one! What it actually stands for is Hennes and Mauritz ? the name of a high street fashion store with a bit of a difference. Their philosophy is ?to provide fashion and quality at the best price? which they certainly do.


*****The clothes*****
H+M stock all kinds of clothes; mens, ladies and childrens. They also sell accessories, underwear and cosmetics ? basically all you could want under one roof except for a pair of shoes! In each department you will find an amazingly wide range of clothes, everything from basics like t-shirts, jumpers and trousers at one end of the range to, shall we say, more specialist clothes at the other. If I had to sum up H+M?s ?type? of clothes in one word I would have to say fashionable. Nearly everything in their store has the amazing (and really useful) quality that it will fit any occasion ? home, work, down the pub or wherever else you happen to be.


*****Ladies*****
The H+M ladies range is vast and usually takes up most of an H+M store, my local used to be ladies upstairs and men downstairs but over the last few years the mens clothes range has shrunk to only half of the downstairs floor. The ranges are divided into what I can only describe as ?designer? and ?non-designer?; designer being clothes labelled ?Divided? (H+M?s fashion label) and the others being just plain old H+M. The designer clothes are usually found near the entrance, the range is much more fashionable and very colourful. The clothes are mainly smarter and skimpier and are usually the type of things you would wear out. It is not arranged in any particular order that I had noticed. The clothes in this department tend to be a little higher priced than the non-designer stuff but is still cheap. Most items tend to be £10 or £15, some are less if they are plain or made from less material.

The non-designer range is th
e rest of the ladies department, and is organised into colours. I think this is a really brilliant and original way to set out a clothes store. It wouldn?t work for any other shop, but H+M can pull it off as any one item of their clothing is usually repeated in most of the other colours, which makes looking for it really easy. Also if (like me) you tend to stick to a few colours that suit you, it means you can head straight to the colours you like. Clothes in this department can be anything from completely plain (e.g. vest tops and shirts) to things that are a little stranger - I often see things and I wonder if they?ll ever sell, but they keep making them so they must sell some! The kind of thing I?m taking about are clothes with prints that they stole from old ladies? head-scarf, and the skirts that ballerinas wear, just shorter and with polka-dots. But these sorts of clothes are a minority, most of the stuff is really decent and a great buy. On that note I will add a short warning about the clothes, in H+M I would always make sure that I tried things on as sometimes I have found things that don?t fit too well, to give an example I tried on a polo shirt style t-shirt the other day and found that, although it was tight fitting around the top half, the material on the shoulders was loose and looked a bit like I had shoulder pads in! It just wasn?t made to fit perfectly. At that kind of price you cant argue too much, and I?ve never had a problem before, but as a tip I?d advise trying things on just in case. However H+M have a 28-day return period if you change your mind.

H+M is the kind of shop that you can look all around and never find anything, or find loads of things that you really, really love. That?s the exact reason why I?m a fan of H+M, you get such a variety of clothes that there really is (and I mean this) something for everyone, and something for me no matter what mood I?m in or what I am shopping for. The prices is another thing that keeps me co
ming back, you will pay £5-10 for a plain top, maybe £15 if it?s special in some way. The trousers are £15-20.


*****Mens*****
Like the ladies, the mens range is also separated into designer and non-designer. When I am shopping for a man I would only ever shop in the non-designer section because I don?t know anyone who wears clothes like you find in the designer section; they tend to be tight fitting with lots of patterns or designs on. I love the non-designer range; I?ve shopped there for my dad, my brother and my boyfriend and that?s a first for a single department! They sell a great range of basic clothes, suits, shirts and underwear. The plain tops will be around £10-15 and the trousers and jeans are £15-25.


*****Underwear, cosmetics and accessories*****
H+M also do their own ranges of both underwear and cosmetics. Firstly the underwear ? I absolutely love H+M underwear. It seems to fit really well, the range is amazing and the prices are really competitive for a designer/high-street store. You could expect to pay £6-10 for a bra and £1-3 for a pair of knickers. You can always buy a matching other half and there always seems to be new ranges and a sale going on.

The accessories are the usual for a high street store ? hats, scarves, belts, bags, and a great range of hair stuff. The ?basic and eccentric? theme follows here as well; you?ll find stuff you?ll love and stuff you?ll love for a fancy dress party. In the cosmetics range you?ll find all sorts of bath bits and make-up for around £2-3 each. I find all this stuff great for presents.


*****About the stores*****
The thing I really love about H+M stores are that they are always really well laid out, there?s a nice atmosphere and the assistants are really helpful and know their stuff. They?re usually painted white with wooden floors and have a lovely clean feel about them. They?ve also got those small lights that make you look really nice (what are th
ose? ? I need some in my house!). The changing rooms have lots of cubicles, all which are all of a decent size ? also the mirrors are adjustable with some in front and some behind so you can always get the full picture!

My one groan about the store is the way that the clothes are displayed, there are hardly any on display which means that you?ll have to hunt through the racks to see any of the clothes. This is the reason why I?ll only go into H+M when I?m really in the mood for shopping, you cant wonder through and browse, you really have to get in there! So my tip for H+M shopping is devote a decent amount of time to it and don?t rush.

I was lucky enough to be wandering down 5th avenue in New York last summer and stumbled across the H+M store ? I was delighted that the prices were the same as everywhere else in the world, still really reasonable, so I did end up buying something in the most expensive place on the planet! If you?ve never been in H+M you should defiantly take some time to have a decent look around, because if you can?t find something you like, then you didn?t look hard enough!!!

Thanks for reading.
Rach x

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