What is H&M made of?

H&M sells billions of garments a year. Most of them are plastic. Here's what the labels actually say — and what H&M would rather you didn't notice.

What Are H&M Clothes Made Of?

Let's not sugarcoat it: the majority of H&M's clothing is made from synthetic fibres. Polyester dominates. It's in the t-shirts, the dresses, the activewear, the jackets. If you grab five random items off hm.com right now and flip to the composition, at least three will be majority polyester.

H&M does use cotton — it's actually one of the world's largest users of organic cotton. But "organic cotton" on a label doesn't mean the whole garment is cotton. A typical H&M piece might read "60% polyester, 35% cotton, 5% elastane." That organic cotton is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the marketing while polyester does the heavy lifting in the actual fabric.

Then there's the Conscious Collection (now rebranded under "H&M Conscious Choice"). The green tag. The one that makes you feel like you're making a good decision. We'll get to that.

H&M's Synthetic Problem

Here's the thing about polyester: it's cheap. Really cheap. And when you're selling a dress for $12.99, cheap materials are the entire business model. H&M's fabric composition reflects this perfectly.

Polyester is made from petroleum. It doesn't biodegrade. When you wash it, it sheds microplastic fibres — up to 900,000 per wash cycle — straight into waterways. It traps heat and moisture against your skin. And H&M puts it in everything.

Even garments that look like they should be natural aren't. That "linen blend" summer top? Check the label. It's probably 55% polyester, 30% viscose, 15% linen. The linen is there for the marketing. The polyester is there for the margin.

H&M's own sustainability reports acknowledge the scale of synthetic usage, but the language is always about "transitioning" and "targets for 2030." Meanwhile, the clothes on the rack right now are still overwhelmingly synthetic. The H&M fabric composition story hasn't meaningfully changed.

Is H&M's Conscious Collection Actually Sustainable?

Short answer: it's complicated, and that's exactly how H&M likes it.

The Conscious Collection (or "Conscious Choice" as it's now labelled) uses what H&M calls "more sustainable materials." That sounds great until you look at what qualifies. Recycled polyester counts. Organic cotton counts. But a garment only needs 50% or more of a "preferred material" to get the green Conscious tag.

So a dress that's 51% recycled polyester and 49% virgin polyester gets the Conscious label. It's still 100% plastic. It will still shed microplastics every time you wash it. It will still sit in a landfill for 200 years. But it gets the green tag.

Recycled polyester is better than virgin polyester — nobody's arguing that. But calling a plastic garment "conscious" is a stretch. It's like calling a cigarette "health-conscious" because the filter is recyclable.

The Norwegian Consumer Authority and other regulators have actually called H&M out on this. In 2022, H&M was found to have misleading sustainability claims on its scorecards. The Conscious branding does real work — it makes shoppers feel good. Whether it makes the clothes good is a different question entirely.

The real move: ignore the marketing labels. Check the actual fabric composition. That's the only number that doesn't lie.

How to Check Any H&M Item Before You Buy

You could scroll through every H&M product page, click "Description & fit," and squint at the composition line buried at the bottom. Or you could just install Fibr and have it done for you — on every single product, automatically.

1. Install Fibr — One click from the Chrome Web Store. No signup. No permissions you'd worry about. Takes three seconds.
2. Browse H&M — Shop hm.com like normal. Fibr reads the fabric composition data for every item automatically in the background.
3. See the truth — Every product image gets a colour-coded badge. Green = natural fibres. Yellow = mixed. Red = mostly synthetic. No more guessing at H&M fabric composition.

Now you can tell which H&M pieces are actually worth buying — and which ones are just plastic with good styling.

H&M Fabric Composition: Your Questions

Is H&M sustainable?

H&M has sustainability targets and uses some recycled materials, but the majority of its garments are still made from synthetic fibres — primarily polyester, which is petroleum-based plastic. H&M's Conscious Collection uses "more sustainable materials" but that can still mean recycled polyester, which sheds microplastics when washed. The scale of H&M's production (billions of garments per year) and the dominance of synthetics in its fabric composition make "sustainable" a generous label. Check the actual materials, not the marketing.

Does H&M use polyester?

Yes — extensively. Polyester is the most common fibre in H&M's clothing. It appears as the primary material in the majority of garments across categories including basics, activewear, outerwear, and even items in the Conscious Collection (as recycled polyester). If you pick up a random H&M garment and check the label, there's a strong chance polyester is listed first. Fibr shows you the H&M fabric composition on every product image so you can spot polyester-heavy items instantly.

What is H&M's Conscious line actually made of?

H&M's Conscious Choice line uses what the brand calls "more sustainable materials," which includes organic cotton, recycled polyester, Tencel, and recycled cotton. A garment qualifies for the Conscious label if at least 50% of its material comes from this preferred list. In practice, many Conscious items are majority recycled polyester — which is still a plastic fibre that sheds microplastics. The Conscious tag tells you something about sourcing, but it doesn't tell you whether the fabric is natural or synthetic. Always check the full composition.

How can I check H&M fabric composition while shopping online?

On hm.com, fabric composition is listed under "Description & fit" on each product page — but you have to click into every item individually to find it. Fibr is a free Chrome extension that reads this data automatically and shows a colour-coded badge on every H&M product image: green for natural fibres, yellow for mixed, red for mostly synthetic. No clicking, no scrolling, no squinting.

Is recycled polyester better than regular polyester?

Recycled polyester diverts plastic bottles from landfill and uses less energy to produce than virgin polyester. That's genuinely good. But once it's a fabric, it behaves identically to virgin polyester: it still sheds microplastics when washed, it still doesn't biodegrade, and it still traps heat against your skin. Recycled polyester is a better choice than virgin polyester, but it's not a substitute for natural fibres like cotton, linen, or wool.