Almost exactly 10 months ago to the day, we first started talking about H&M coming to Lake Travis. Now it’s here and it’s open for business with plenty of skinny jeans for everyone.
The Hill Country Galleria in Bee Cave is the home to this new store, the 26th H&M location in Texas. There’s only one other H&M in Austin and it’s located in The Domain.
The new department store is big and shiny and chock-full of clothing and accessories. So we want to know what you think, Lake Travis friends.
Is it “OMG!” yay or {yawn} nay?
Since the grand opening this summer, we’ve heard a little bit of both.
Behind the scenes
Before we delve into the obvious, let’s take a closer look at our new Scandinavian neighbor.
If you didn’t already know, H&M is a Sweden-based company founded in 1947 with nearly 3,800 stores worldwide.
H&M stands for Hennes & Mauritz, which came from Mauritz Widforss, the name of the original Stockholm-based retailer that eventually became H&M.
Sustainable fashion
In 2010, H&M launched a full fashion line made with sustainable materials.
In fact, in an effort to reuse textiles and keep clothes out of landfills, you can drop off your unwanted garments at H&M — no matter what brand or what condition — and they will use them in their garment collecting initiative.
The clothes you drop off will then be sold as second hand clothes, or they’ll be reused or recycled. This doesn’t mean that the leftover materials will necessarily become clothes because some of the fabrics may be used as cloths for cleaning or other industrial purposes.
No matter what, H&M is dedicated to stylish sustainability.
Did you know?
Interesting factoid.
H&M designed many of the uniforms for their Olympic athletes this summer in Rio.
They designed the uniforms that the Swedish team wore at the opening ceremonies. This coincided with H&M’s release of their new sportswear collection that debuted in mid July, so you too could workout in Olympian style.
Points for being accessible
Now let’s take a look at H&M in Lake Travis.
Shoppers like the location because there’s plenty of parking nearby and the store is pretty easy to access from either Hwy 71 or Bee Cave Parkway.
The construction and renovations currently underway at Hill Country Galleria — which you began to see in August — may be a little bit inconvenient, but it isn’t a huge obstacle for H&M.
What about the goods
H&M is known for being a fashion-forward brand with an affordable price tag.
In addition to clothing for women and men (think skinny jeans galore), H&M has collections for children and newborns too.
The store merchandises all of its accessories like shoes, handbags, jewelry and weird hats using a popular “store-within-a-store” concept, a method that enhances the shopping experience and ultimately sells more stuff.
Fresh or fretful?
If you’ve been in H&M lately, you can tell their merchandising is geared towards the upcoming holidays.
Will you be wearing the skeleton leotard?
Or perhaps the bat headband?
Or the Thanksgiving turkey-shaped winter hat, fellas?
Oh, wait. A knitted men’s hat shaped like a turkey? That’s funny.
Yes, even in “the bubble” we appreciate whimsy.
What do you think? Is H&M everything you dreamed it would be and more?
I think H&M is a very good addition to the Galleria. I am pretty surprised in a lot of ways how limited the shopping is at the Galleria vs Domain and other areas. The store selection is thin. I recently learned that the Galleria was suppose to have really good stores like those in the Domain but when the Galleria was being built some group called SOS scared them away. Really? whats wrong with whoever SOS is and why do they care and why did those stores get scared away? Back to H&M I have been there twice, good stuff at good prices. My only worry is both times there were very few people in the store, makes me worried that they will not stay if they don’t get the business, I will continue to do my part.