H&M opens largest store to date

By

Florent Gilles

Published
Jul 17, 2014

The Swedish giant H&M is celebrated its largest US opening today, July 17, at 589 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The store, the retailer’s 318^th in the US, covers no less than 57,000 square feet spanning five floors. It’s also the first store in the world to comprehensively stock all of the fashion chain’s lines, including H&M Home.

To mark the occasion, the renowned artist Jeff Koons designed a handbag for H&M adorned with one of his most famous works, the "Balloon Dog", available in the flagship and in a selection of US H&M stores for 50 dollars. The piece will also be available at the Whitney Museum of American Art, which is hosting a large-scale retrospective exhibition of Jeff Koons’ work until October 19.

Another first for the New York flagship: This is the first time H&M will have an in-store style-adviser service, which, more importantly, will be free available and no require appointments (!), according to the American newspaper Women's Wear Daily.

Today there are 3,200 H&M stores worldwide, this opening marking the Swedish retailer’s 13th address in New York. And as we are our own best competition, the record for size will soon be surpassed by its 14th store planned to be opened in the Herald Center, located on Herald Square, at the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue, estimated at more than 63,000 square feet.