I’m browsing H&M and these choices look so random…
We’ve got Claude Monet and Van Gogh - sure, i love their paintings as much as the next person, but a T-shirt usually celebrates people or groups who are still alive, right?
And then “university of michigan” - why is faux university paraphenilia considered stylish?? Hell this is a bigger question than my original one. I’m shopping in Britain and the brand is European, what significance does University of Michigan have on our lives?
The various band name t shirts make the most sense, but for a while now there’s bee. The whole “oh you like Band Name? Name 3 of their songs.” attitude, so i see it dying off
Not intended as advertising btw.
Back in the day, I worked in the corporate office for a retail clothing chain (IT department, so not down in the weeds), and I can’t speak for H&M like you gave as an example, but for the one I worked for we didn’t design anything.
We had a department of people called “buyers” who would work with various clothing vendors directly and wholesale bulk-purchase items for the stores. Their job was to basically figure out what was in style, what would sell, in which of our markets it would sell, and order them to stock in the stores. Not all stores carried the same styles/designs/whatever. e.g. We stocked college sports apparel only in markets near those colleges, our stores in warmer regions rarely carried winter apparel that we normally stocked in colder regions, etc.
Yep there are only a few “brands” I buy, because I liked them when I was younger, basically - but if you pay attention to the tags, you might see “vendor ID numbers” or something like that, showing where the brand itself bought the item from, commissioned with their brand or tags added. Sometimes I’ve looked for specific numbers if I’m trying to find a shirt that fit really well, or was really well made, and I want others like it.
I’m talking brands like GAP, Vans, Aero, American Eagle, etc.