Are Fashion Trends Global, Or Do They Vary Dependent On Where You Live?

I was looking on high-street brand H&M’s website the other day, intrigued by the number of stores they have worldwide and just how many locations and areas they ship to. A quick Google search tells me that they have 4,000 stores and further sales in 60 online markets. They are based in the following continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, North and South America, and Oceania. Within these major continents, they are based in a wide variety of countries. From Malaysia to America, New Zealand to Morocco...the list goes on and on. And this made me wonder whether or not all of the products on each country’s specific version of the H&M website are the same.

Are all of the websites the same overall? Do they have the same layouts, and more importantly, do they advertise the same products and campaigns as well as trends for their target markets? Could I click on Qatar’s version of the H&M website and will it be the same as the one for Germany? The answer is no. Although it’s hard to tell due to the immediately obvious fact that the websites have different layouts, searching through the different sections of the website, you can tell that there is at least a slight, if not significant, difference in products sold.

Some statistics...

According to Business Insider, H&M are using data to tweak and customize the products that they offer to each country and region’s store. Furthermore, not all supply chains are the same according to H&M Group. The chains can vary depending on product type or materials used.  
Of course, there are more companies and brands out there than H&M, but as a popular and universally acknowledged store, it definitely serves as an interesting example to discuss in the debate. We can now have a greater understanding of how fashion trends and products generally can change and vary from place to place. And because the products in one country aren’t necessarily the same as in another, surely this means that the trends could be different too? There are so many high-street stores like H&M out there that are offering slightly different products in order to appeal to different target markets and consumers. Trends surely follow suit.

Zara as another good example 

Zara is another example of a high-street brand selling in many different countries. And again, the products can differ depending on where you shop from. Cultural differences definitely play a big part in this, but so do consumer preferences. So, again, it feels as though trends aren’t as universal as we might have initially presumed because of these major factors.  
The trends in England could highly differ from those in Uzbekistan, and then could differ again in Spain, and so this is reflected through the products, campaigns, and trends shown on the version of each country’s website. 

Will Trends ever become fully universal?

It all goes to show that trends really can and do differ for a variety of reasons, and more than you might think. So, will they ever become universal and global things, or will it always depend on location and cultural differences, as well as the preferences of the consumer?