LONG LINES at SM Megamall’s Mega Fashion Hall heralded the long-awaited arrival of H&M in the Philippines. Just to demonstrate the clamor for H&M’s affordable clothes, photos surfaced online of young fashionistas who camped out by the store’s entrance before its opening on Friday.

Fashionistas have even more to look forward too — H&M’s collaborative line with fashion designer Alexander Wang will be released on Nov. 6. Wang’s collaboration with H&M is one of several high-fashion designers who have guest-designed for the brand including Karl Lagerfeld and Sonia Rykiel.

Before the official opening, guests were taken to the three-floor store on Wednesday, where they were greeted by Magnus Olsson, H&M’s country manager for Greater China and Southeast Asia.

Sweden-based multinational retail clothing company H&M (Hennes & Mauritz) was founded in 1947 by Erling Persson, who took a postwar trip to the United States and got the idea for selling “fashion and quality at the best price” — what Mr. Olsson calls “our business ID.” In recent years, the company has added “in a sustainable way” to its goals. 

Today, a descendant of Mr. Persson, Karl-Johan Persson, stands as the chief executive officer of H&M.

To highlight its ethical production and sustainability, guests on Wednesday were handed brochures that highlighted the company’s new seven commitments: providing fashion for conscious consumers, choose and reward responsible partners, being ethical, being climate smart, reducing, reusing, and recycling, using natural resources responsibly, and strengthening communities.

All this is in light of issues that cropped up since 2010, where factories in developing countries, some of which produce clothing for H&M, were found to be operating below safety standards, with poor ventilation and illnesses resulting from chemical fumes. As a result, the company decided to change its face for the future: for example, last year, according to a report from Reuters, the company has a plan to pay its workers a “living wage” instead of the minimum wage imposed by the countries in which these factories operate. Furthermore, according to the brochure, the company promised that it now audits factories, and highlighted one in Cambodia where the workers earn 15% more than the country’s minimum wage.

“We want to be in the forefront for all sustainability work. We deeply want to take responsibility for our actions,” said Mr. Olsson, adding, “We have, for a long time, focused on being a responsible company, and given our size, we want to take more responsibility.”

Among its actions in recent years is a program for collecting “unwanted” H&M garments and repurposing them to extend the life cycle of the product, and lessen its environmental impact.

The brand has a presence in over 54 countries with more than 3,000 stores. Rapid expansion is part of the company’s strategy: “Our goal is to… increase [by] 10%-15% [our] store count every year, which means we opened up 375 stores globally this year,” said Mr. Olsson.

There had been a rumor that the Megamall store, which carries this year’s autumn/winter line — including leopard print coats, gloves, and fuzzy sweaters — was going to open earlier this year. “We know that there has been a rumor that we should open in August, and we don’t know where that rumor comes from… we are happy to open now with all the hype we have faced before this opening.”

Despite being in SM Megamall, the store is not exclusive to SM and is operated by H&M. “We operate our stores, in all the markets where it’s possible on a legal perspective, on our own. That’s how we do it,” said Mr. Olsson. The company chose Mega Fashion Hall for its first store for its prime location. “When we expand, we always want to have the best location,” he said.

The company is just one of many fast fashion brands that have entered the Philippine market in the 2000s, including retail giants Zara and Forever 21, although Mr. Olsson believes that H&M is a fast fashion brand of a different school. “It depends on how you define fast fashion… our products have a long life span. We don’t see a connection between our very good price points and the life cycle of the product… if you mean fast fashion when it comes to being very quick in offering the latest fashions, then I think we’re very good at it.”

H&M will open four more branches in the Philippines this year, at SM Makati, SM North EDSA in Quezon City, Robinsons Magnolia also in Quezon City, and Robinsons Place Manila.

Mr. Olsson noted, on the company’s arrival in the Philippines, “I would say that when we enter new markets, we look into several different factors, the most important thing is, the customer want[s] us to come.”

The line to the store snaking in and around the mall on Friday’s opening, at least, made that ring true. — J. L. Garcia