In early March, interiors insiders and enthusiasts were abuzz with the news that H&M Home had partnered with Kelly Wearstler on a collection of furnishings and decor, which will be shown at Milan Design Week on April 21 ahead of its release to the public in September 2026. While H&M has launched several capsule designer collaborations, beginning with Jonathan Adler in 2019, Wearstler’s 29-item line is the brand’s first designer-driven debut that includes more than just accessories and tabletop pieces.

“H&M Home has a global presence, but with this milestone we want to make an impact on customers and the design industry alike in a new way,” Evelina Kravaev-Söderberg, H&M Home Head of Design & Creative, said in a statement. “We also wanted to explore furniture and lighting more deeply as that hasn’t been done in a collaborative context before.”

The announcement came hot on the heels of Zara Home’s launch of a new collection of lighting, furnishings and decor pieces designed by stylist Colin King—a splashy debut that follows the rollout of more targeted furnishings collections since 2022, particularly in collections designed in partnership with Vincent Van Duysen. With two of the biggest players in mass-market retail experimenting in the category with big-name collaborators, it appears that fast fashion is coming for the home once again.

Both lines have garnered much fanfare and many headlines, but success stateside isn’t guaranteed. While H&M and Zara’s home brands have enjoyed special status within the European marketplace for nearly 20 years (H&M Home launched in 2009; Zara Home in 2003), U.S. consumers have been slower to greet them with the same zeal. Much of that has to do with the nuances of the American consumer’s financial preferences.

In fashion, as in the home sector, the American retail landscape is dominated by bargain do-it-all brands: Walmart, Target, Costco and Amazon. On the apparel side, fast-fashion brands like H&M and Zara have been embraced because their prices stack up against those of the big four. But on the home side, there’s no comparison.

“The price points are not as competitive as they are in apparel,” says Business of Home’s Retail Watch columnist Warren Shoulberg. “In home, H&M and Zara prices are more in line with Macy’s or Kohl’s—but that’s not the same thing.”

The other obstacle is exposure. These brands only showcase home product in existing stores—which are dedicated primarily to apparel, with only small portions of the floor allotted to homewares. “To be a player in bedding, you need to have a bed on the floor,” says Shoulberg. The same is true of larger furniture pieces—customers want to touch and feel before investing, which fashion-focused store footprints often can’t accommodate. Without standalone home stores, as they have in Europe, the brands face an uphill climb to make a significant impact on consumers in terms of recognition and market share.

This isn’t the first time a popular fashion brand has tried to cash in on the home industry. Nearly three years ago, Banana Republic launched a home line as part of its then CEO Sandra Stangl’s attempt to parlay her experience at RH and Pottery Barn into new revenue for the clothing brand. The approach ended in failure, a victim of the post-pandemic home industry sales slump—and perhaps a fitting example of how a lack of showroom real estate can backfire. Banana Republic discontinued furniture sales after just 13 months. Mango, J.Crew, Jenni Kayne and a host of other fashion brands have also tried to make inroads in the home category, with some finding more success than others.

But there is plenty of good will around these mass-market launches, and the H&M Home and Zara Home furniture collections promise something the bargain retailers don’t: style. Kelly Wearstler and Colin King may not be the household names that Joanna Gaines is, but for those who want a luxury look for significantly less, the lines will fill a gap in the market.

“I’ve always believed that exceptional design shouldn’t be confined to luxury,” Wearstler recently told Fast Company. “The modular furniture is something I love for how interactive it is. It invites people to engage, to reconfigure, to make it their own. That adaptability, combined with a sense of surprise, is really at the heart of the collection.”