It was far from obvious that clothing giant H&M, founded in 1947, would ever create an extensive archive. In an industry where the next collection is always just around the corner, it took a while before the company's heritage began to be perserved in a more organized fashion (pun intended). Only in 2008 did the company start working to document and preserve its heritage -- and they did it in close cooperation with us at the Centre for Business History.
A driving force in the process was Margareta van den Bosch, the company's chief designer from 1986 to 2007, who wanted to secure H&M's history for the future, for both the family Persson that owned the group and all its employees. Together with fashion historian Ingrid Giertz-Mårtenson, we conducted extensive interviews with former employees – following established oral history-practices – which became an important part of the archive's foundation.
