Stockholm in the late 1980's, H&M just rebranded from "Hennes och Mauritz", people were wearing dark leather jackets as a fashion statement - eviltoast

I posted this previously in !stockholm@lemmy.world, but that community never seemed to pick up any speed, so I hope more people can appreciate this historic tidbit.

This photo (not mine!) is from downtown Stockholm. It takes place in the late 1980’s.

To the right, outside of the field of the picture, is an iconic food hall for international cuisine as well as for Swedish fish and crustacean cuisine. To the right, visible in the picture, is “Sergelgången”, which is an iconic street in Stockholm between “Hötorget” and “Sergels torg”. Also to the left, outside the field of the picture, is the major concert hall (Konserthuset) with its iconic steps that have been graced by both celebrities and random rubes, for warming up in the sun on the otherwise chilly Stockholm streets.

The camera is focused on an iconic Hennes (“hers” in Swedish) store, that was mainly for ladies’ fashion. The company that owned Hennes decided to branch out and bought Mauritz, and they ran both ladies’ and gentlemen’s stores until they brought them together as “Hennes & Mauritz”. They were known for poorly made clothes that broke or got broken after a few uses and washes. Their zippers were nationally shamed as proper trash fashion as they broke after one use. Basically, in Sweden they were known for youth or “poor mans” clothes. Popular among students, but once their buyres could afford decent clothes, these went to a land fill (as even the second hand stores refused to stock this crap).

When they decided to go international, they rebranded as H&M, and later HM.

    • Regna@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      71·
      1 year ago

      The papers (and magazines) mainly printed in B&W. This is, as far as I know, a professional shoot as it was done with a higher resolution than many pics from then.

      The colour photos my family took from this time need to be severely colour adjusted to not look as depressing milque/grey/beige colours when we scan them.

      • everythingsucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        That is a good point. I forgot newspapers existed. Bigger ones would do color(mostly on Sunday) but yeah, regular pics were black and white.

    • Regna@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      For some reason, I’ve been unable to post or comment to !sweden@lemmy.world since about a month ago. I made some posts, but then I couldn’t. At first, I thought it was a bug, then I thought I was shadow banned (mailed the mod and checked just to be informed that they didn’t ban me in any way), then I thought it was a bug again. A few days ago, I just gave up on posting there, as Lemmy just stalls irregardless of what client I use with this account.

      I’m encouraging people to go to !stockholm@lemmy.world , but it seems it’s mainly me and a couple of other users that peruse it at all. If that sub doesn’t pick up, I’ll ghost it as well, which would suck as I think we have a lot of info to share among one another and with tourists/interested parties.

      • Dandroid@dandroid.appEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        I had the same thing happen to me for a different community. I couldn’t even see any posts in that community, not even the ones I made. If I logged out I could see it, but if I logged in I couldn’t.

        I eventually created a new account when I made my own instance, and that “fixed” it.

        • Regna@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Interesting. For me, I could see posts but not post or comment anything at all. I ended up posting in other communities. I’ll see if I get back later.

  • niktemadur@kbin.social
    4·
    1 year ago

    This is Old School Cool catnip.
    Is there an active Old School Cool instance around these here parts of the internets?

  • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
    4·
    1 year ago

    To the right, outside of the field of the picture, is an iconic food hall for international cuisine as well as for Swedish fish and crustacean cuisine.

    I’m going to guess that Swedish Fish are not the same thing in Sweden as they are in the US.

    • Regna@lemmy.worldOP
      8·
      1 year ago

      “Malaco pastellfiskar” or “Malaco-fiskar” used to be a semi-popular candy, that lost their popularity in Sweden in the 1990’s. It surprised me and my family a lot when we were abroad, especially in they US (and the Bahamas(!?!?)) that they’d been so popular, as we Swedes didn’t like them much in general once we got more candy varieties to choose from.

      I am mildly amused with the thought that anyone thought these bland, (very) vaguely fruit flavoured, gelly candies were in any way something that was appreciated in Sweden once we could get international imports.

  • Neato@kbin.social
    3·
    1 year ago

    Is H&M still bad quality? What the OP describes is truly epically bad quality. I’ve never had clothes break or a zipper fail after 1 use. I’ve never shopped at H&M but I did notice they were fairly cheap.