How Kelly Wearstler designed her new H&M collection
Swedish retailer H&M is breaking into Milan Design Week with a new collection in collaboration with the award-winning interior designer Kelly Wearstler.
Wearstler’s high-profile work, including the interiors of the Proper Hotels, and for celebrity clients like Cameron Diaz and Gwen Stefani, has earned her A-list status in the industry. Now, with a first-of-its-kind collection, H&M is bringing Wearstler’s high-end designs to Main Street.
“The constraints were very real. Everything had to work within specific production and shipping parameters. But that actually became a creative driver,” Wearstler tells Fast Company over email. “Working at this scale pushed me to distill my ideas—how to create something artisanal and expressive, but also accessible and adaptable to different ways of living.”
The 29-item collection of furniture, decorative objects, and textiles that includes a modular sofa, marble serving tray, and carved-wood vase, marks H&M’s first large-scale furniture and small-objects collaboration with a designer.
Wearstler, who wanted the pieces to feel collectible, focused on flexibility and modularity to make each object adapt to daily life. “A chair can become a sofa, smaller tables can expand into larger ones. It’s about creating a system that evolves with the user,” she says.
Debuting in Milan
Wearstler and H&M’s Milan debut will take over the 17th-century baroque palace the Palazzo Acerbi—a historic venue usually closed to the public—from April 21 to 26. The palazzo’s opulent interior of frescoes and colonnades is set to contrast with Wearstler’s contemporary designs in an installation produced by Studio Boum.
“With this milestone we want to make an impact on customers and the design industry alike in a new way. When we discovered the venue—the Palazzo Acerbi—everything fell into place,” Evelina Kravaev-Söderberg, H&M Home head of design and creative, said in a press release.
The installation “unfolds as an immersive, choreographed journey through the senses,” the press release said. “Each room reveals a distinct dimension of this multifaceted experience, elevating every sense into a sacred act that guides visitors toward presence and connection.”
While better known for her interior design, Wearstler has created furniture and objects prior to the collab with H&M, including high-end sculptural marble seating and a “sensual” piano made of birchwood. But thanks to H&M, her design ethos will be available at more affordable prices, ranging from $28 to $805, ready for buyers to make their own.
“I’ve always believed that exceptional design shouldn’t be confined to luxury,” Wearstler says. “The modular furniture is something I love for how interactive it is. It invites people to engage, to reconfigure, to make it their own. That adaptability, combined with a sense of surprise, is really at the heart of the collection.”
The collection will be available starting September 3 in select H&M stores and online in 40 countries.