H&M's Arket Unveils First Campaign 3 Weeks Before Flagship Store Opening

LONDON, United Kingdom — Arket has shared the first images of its advertising campaign exclusively with BoF.

The brand, which is the latest launch from the H&M Group stable, also revealed that it will open the doors to its first flagship store on London's Regent Street on Friday August 25.

The new Autumn/Winter campaign showcases both womenswear and menswear and is set to launch this month. It offers a glimpse of the brand's classic-yet-sportswear-inflected collection, which will be sold along alongside a selection of products from non-H&M Group brands.

Arket product will be priced slightly higher than that of the group's core H&M Group brand, with men's shirts, for example, starting at €39 (about $42) and stretching up to €115.

Arket Autumn/Winter 2017 menswear campaign | Source: Courtesy

The womenswear campaign was photographed by Zoe Ghertner and the menswear campaign was photographed by Chloe le Drezen and Paul Wetherell; both campaigns were styled by Jodie Barnes.

"The brand DNA is timeless, crisp, quality and warmth," Ulrika Bernhardtz, Arket's creative director, told BoF in March. "Timeless is style beyond trend. And crisp is the counterpart to that: to be always relevant, modern and fresh. Quality is not only the feel of garments; it's also how they are produced. Warmth is about being genuine and personal."

The campaign itself places a strong emphasis on block-coloured clothing in a softly-lit outdoors setting. The filmic quality and emphasis on cleanly-designed product echoes Bernhardtz’s description and is a clear evolution of the Scandinavian minimalism that Cos, Arket's sister brand, is known for.

“We have produced a seasonal layer of images for all of Arket’s categories,” says Bernhardtz of the campaign. “By focusing on, say, a specific material, silhouette, category, fit or colour family, we can emphasise what is most important to us about the collection.”

“Having such a clear purpose for each image creates an equally clear shared vision... and gives a result that feels very much our own,” adds Bernhardtz.

Editor's Note: This article was revised on August 3rd 2017. An earlier version of this article stated that only Paul Wetherell photographed the Arket menswear campaign. In fact, both Chloe le Drezen and Wetherell photographed the campaign.

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