Mango HE

The first men’s collection from Mango came out in March. I confess not being usually interested by them, but it changed. Until yesterday, after having lunch with a friend who recommended me to peep their nearest store, in this case : Mango Opéra, Paris.

Of course, for most of us, Mango is a girl brand which we’ve only been into with our girlfriends or little sisters – until now. And Mango, as you also probably know, is one of Zara’s main competitors: they are both international-successful Spanish stores.

Well, let’s come back to my story. I enter into Mango and ask an assistant the way to the men’s corner. She directs me to the extreme back of the store. As often with big unisex stores, the men’s section is a little island lost in the middle of a vast ocean of women’s items. And it doesn’t take a long time to shop it around entirely! OK, I was quite busy and If I hadn’t come in order to write an article about it, I would certainly have left straightaway.

I had barely glanced few items at the first time, but I decided to take a second closer look. And all that stuff finally seemed rather ordinary. To understand what the clothes are about, you need to check the label. This is the way I always work: I look at the price, the material, and then I unfold the garment to look at the shape.

And I very quickly made 2 conclusions: it’s all fairly expensive (still comparing it to Zara) but using better fabric! Let’s take an example with some jumpers. You might have seen the H+M jumper that Tony told us about in September, and you’ve probably been and looked at Zara jumpers in store. If you look them closely, you’ll see that the jumpers are mainly made of man-made fibres.

Au contraire, a nice surprise from Mango: their jumpers are mostly made from wool. That’s unusual! Sometimes, they’re even 100% wool or 100% cashmere like the jumper above. Another example: their scarves. Well, they’re more expensive than usual for a high-street store but with a classier touch: they’re 100% wool!

This men’s collection, called “He by Mango”, also contains jackets and shirts. They seemed good, but nothing special (though I admit I was in a rush and didn’t look at them for a very long time).

However, I came across their black, slightly waxed jeans. They didn’t look bad for €65!

Since then, I find out that the entire HE collection is available online from www.mangoshop.com.

I imagine that some of you might also have been curious enough to go to Mango, and maybe try some of their clothes! What did you think?

• Official website: www.mango.com
• Online store: www.mangoshop.com
• See the topic on Mango HE in the forum (in French)