Essentials is H&M’s attempt at slow fashion. The collection is antithetical to the fast fashion agenda and has a tightly-edited, season-less line of wardrobe staples.

The idea is to slow down. Instead of creating wastefully, H&M has made garments that are designed to stand the test of time. Every style in the collection is individually numbered, and the brand plans to never feature more than 20 at a time. These are classic men’s wear pieces like T-shirts, jeans, shirts, coats, jackets etc and considerable development and fabric research have gone into creating these garments. This means, for instance, adding a smidge of stretch to jeans to ensure comfort or getting fit details like the lengths on T-shirts just right.

Fast fashion leaves a large environmental footprint. So this is Swedish giant H&M’s attempt at making some concerted steps towards righting some wrongs. The growing issue of ethical fashion has thrown a spotlight on the sustainability of fast fashion and in turn guided the fashion industry down a road toward a more sustainable fiber use.

Fast fashion is a term coined to the quick turnaround times between runway, manufacture and retail which can be as short as ten days.The average fashion designer now creates anything between 18 to 25 collections a year.