L.A’.s vintage lovers are getting a new stop on their weekend circuit. On Thursday, H&M is opening a permanent “Pre Loved” shop-in-shop at its new North Beverly Drive store, in partnership with Wasteland Vintage. The shop’s assortment includes designer finds, leather staples and H&M archive gems. It marks H&M’s second Pre Loved shop in the U.S. after debuting in Soho last year.
“Los Angeles felt very much like a natural second city to launch Pre Loved in the U.S.,” said Sofia Mahlen, head of circular business models at H&M. The brand has increased its investments in the city this year, opening three additional store openings and hosting the global event called H&M&LA in April. She added that the city’s deep connection to vintage culture played an important role in selecting the location, citing its mix of designer archives, music-influenced fashion and longstanding secondhand shopping traditions.
H&M’s partner on the project, L.A.-based Wasteland Vintage, is known for its eclectic mix of designer and rock-inspired apparel. H&M’s Stockholm-based Pre Loved team defines the seasonal trends and color direction, while Wasteland sources the pieces. Mahlen described the collaboration as a true back-and-forth process, where Wasteland offered feedback and then pulled inventory aligning with the brief. “It made sense with their L.A. edginess,” Mahlen said. “They said the collection would have been exactly how they would have done it even without [our] brief.”
Pre Loved pieces are priced higher than H&M’s core assortment, with Wasteland setting prices within the agreed ranges defined by H&M’s curation brief. H&M buys the curated inventory from Wasteland at a set cost and sells it at retail, allowing both partners to earn revenue through a straightforward resale wholesale model.
The L.A. assortment will debut with around 300 pieces, with replenishment planned to keep the display full throughout the holiday shopping period. Categories will include proven performers, like denim, leather and premium accessories, plus some new additions. “We are going to try shoes and boots for the first time,” Mahlen said. “We think it could be cool in Los Angeles.” There will also be select H&M guest designer pieces, which have proven highly collectible. “In our store, it makes extra sense because our customers are really interested in those,” she said.
The shop-in-shop will follow a visual format used across H&M’s 14 global Pre Loved locations. The space is designed to feel distinct from the core assortment, while also highlighting the uniqueness of each piece, and keeping the environment calm and elevated.
Mahlen said placing secondhand next to new product is intentional, mirroring how people shop today. “You buy something new, and you buy something vintage. If you can do that at the same time, then even better.”
To bring awareness to the launch, H&M is bringing Pre Loved to the city’s popular flea market scene. Beginning on November 23, the brand will activate a vintage truck pop-up at four L.A. markets, in partnership with Wasteland. The truck will appear at Melrose Trading Post, Silverlake Flea, Santa Monica Antique Market and the Rose Bowl Flea Market. Customers will be able to shop curated assortments, donate clothing through H&M’s garment collection program, and access member perks and small gifts. Alongside the vintage market pop-ups, H&M will promote the L.A. launch through its owned channels and local creators. It will also host a launch event with Wasteland at H&M Beverly Hills in January.
H&M Pre Loved first launched in Barcelona a little over two years ago and has since expanded across Europe. Mahlen said its performance has consistently encouraged further rollout. She declined to share specific figures but said the company gauges success by looking at sell-through, revenue per square meter and customer behavior, including whether shoppers purchase both secondhand and new pieces. An H&M spokesperson said its Pre Loved model is gaining traction, noting that the Soho NYC concept saw a significant sales increase from Q2 2025 to Q3 2025. Resale represented 0.6% of H&M Group’s total turnover in 2024.
“We are for sure looking at selling in terms of revenue and profit,” Mahlen said. The team also considers Pre Loved’s contribution to H&M’s broader sustainability goals and how it can generate revenue with lower emissions.
H&M is not the only brand to introduce a pre-loved product selection. In November 2022, Zara launched its Pre Owned platform in the U.K., offering clothing repairs and resale and accepting donations through a single digital hub. Levi’s, meanwhile, rolled out its SecondHand buy-back and resale program in October 2020, focusing on refurbished denim and authenticated vintage. And, after earlier pilots, Patagonia made its Worn Wear initiative a permanent, year round program in 2017, cementing its position as one of the earliest large-scale adopters of circular retail.
Pre Loved is one of several circular models H&M has tested alongside its Repair services, Remake offering of remade H&M items and Take Care assortment of clothing care products. Mahlen said the secondhand offering has been the most scalable and best understood by customers. “The common denominator is prolonging the lifetime of products that are already made,” she said. The company is also exploring improvements to its digital resale experience and the evolution of its online curation partnership with online resale platform Sellpy.
For now, the L.A. opening represents a meaningful step in growing H&M’s physical secondhand footprint. “If we can inspire customers who maybe came to the store for something else but then stumble across secondhand, then I am a very happy person,” Mahlen said.
