As part of my Sustainability Up Close project I test eco friendly clothing collections and give inspiration for little changes that can make a more sustainable lifestyle.
Today I tested H&M Conscious underwear for you. Keep reading if you want to learn a little more about the H&M Conscious clothing line in general or just jump right down to find my thoughts about the undies!
About H&M Conscious
H&M Conscious is the name of the sustainable collection line of Swedish fast fashion giant Hennes & Mauritz (H&M).
But what are the products really like? Are they actually sustainable and have a good look and feel to them?
Or is it an image campaign that leaves us spending money for fashion that is neither conscious nor nice?
How sustainable is it really?
Since 2011 H&M is regularly releasing their eco friendlier collections under the name H&M conscious. The featured clothes are made partly or fully out of recycled, organically produced or quickly regrowing materials.
Yep, that’s right. They actually put in somewhat of an effort. As a fashion company their size they have the funds to offer environmental friendlier products even in a low price segment. Which I believe is an amazing start.
It offers people that can’t effort the mostly quite high prices of slow fashion labels to still be kinder to our planet.
As I said the change up in materials is a start. But H&M has still been in the headlines for burning tonnes of clothing yearly, missing their goal of supplying everyone in their production line with a livable salary and actually stopping child labour.
The independent global fashion industry rating agency Good On You rated H&M with a mediocre ‘It’s a Start’.
The undies
Buying conscious
Enough of the serious stuff. Let’s have a look at the garment. The underwear came at the really low price of 25 € which isn’t surprising for H&M. The underpants and the bra came separate which created some frustration at the shop.
I already am not the biggest fan of shopping offline. The set up at the H&M store was rather confusing and made finding a set of matching underwear almost impossible. Especially if you concretely wanted a conscious pair.
At least the tag makes it quite obvious and is visible even from further away because of it’s green color.
In the future I am probably going to order online just to save me the in store search for the green tag.
What conscious feels like
So much about the buying experience. The material of the underwear itself was quite soft and the color and texture were pretty nice.
Only the bra had information about what made it sustainable. I was pleasantly surprised as the bra itself was made out of 55 % recycled polyamide. The pad inside was fully recycled. Not bad H&M. Not bad!
The underpants on the other hand had no information about what makes them conscious whatsoever. That I found quite disappointing. I couldn’t even check online since the product couldn’t be found.
Searching the online shop I realized that the bra was sold cheaper than in store online as well. And man it really annoys me!
Another thing I wasn’t too happy about was the transparency of the bra. I am not the biggest fan of pads showing through which was the case and is enough reason for me to not really wanting to wear the bra again.
The pants were quite comfortable though. I am happy it was a double pack.
What I liked.
- soft fabric
- nice texture
- good price
- good fit
- 55 % recycled material (bra)
What annoyed me.
- bra was quite see through
- no conscious listing for the underpants
- bra cheaper online than in store
- conscious pieces weren’t too easily found in store
