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People Are Way Too Excited About the H&M E-Commerce Launch

Image: Huffpo Style Screengrab

Image: Huffpo Style Screengrab

People are responding to the news that H&M is launching online shopping in the U.S. with a degree of enthusiasm formerly reserved for the birth of royal babies or the acquisition of kittens.

The front page of Huffington Post's Style section, for example, leads with the headline: "BEST. DAY. EVER."

The reactions on social media matched HuffPo's in intensity. Some were "actually in tears," others were praying and expressing their gratitude to a higher power. I'm not joking:


I understand that H&M offers stylish clothes at low prices, that its stores are often overcrowded and overwhelming, that shopping online offers great flexibility and convenience, particularly for people who don't live and work inside a major metropolitan area. I don't mean to be a tedious jerk — I know designer clothing is expensive (I certainly can't afford it) and H&M can be a good option for buying on-trend without paying boutique prices —  but fast fashion has a devastating effect on the environment and it's often produced under unsafe and unethical working conditions in the developing world. That doesn't mean we absolutely have to stop buying from stores like H&M, but we should make an effort to buy less — to buy only the things we need and to take better care of the clothing we already own. I'm just saying: yes, it just got exponentially easier to go on a virtual H&M haul from anywhere in the United States, but that is not a cause for celebration.