H&M & The Sims team up for fashion contest

The Sims is running a clothes "designing" contest for Sims players, sponsored by H&M:

The Sims™2 H&M® Fashion Runway is where Fashion Design and the Virtual World meet!! Using The Sims™ 2 PC video game and fashion inspiration provided by H&M®, you can CREATE & SUBMIT custom outfits designed for the virtual characters that inhabit the world of The Sims 2.

I would hope to hell that Sims players have a bit more imagination than the art featured on the promo pages- talk about utterly boring gear:

Seems the whole thing is promoting a new The Sims add-on pack: the H&M Fashion gear pack. Oh boy.

... it's not just clothes though, but cash registers and changing rooms too:

Design your own store modeled after the sleek interiors of the trendsetting retailer.

Guffaw! I wonder if the copy writer has ever been in an H&M? Although, to be a bit more generous, the newly-launching H&M in the USA is showing up in Beverly Hills Malls behind glossy, clean windows, rather than the gum-splattered grey floor and greasy glass that is the H&M ragshop on Oxford Street, London.

The all-new retail-themed items include mannequins, clothing racks, cash registers, fitting rooms, and more. Design a fashion runway where your Sims can showcase their favorite outfits on the catwalk.

I'm all for getting creative with clothes designing, but this whole setup seems to be rather too controlled for my liking. Fashion is art, but this seems to be a bit more like colouring-in some H&M templates. Not so good.

(via YPulse)