H&M has collaborated with Beyoncé on the retailer’s upcoming summer push. The celebrated recording artist will front the brand’s advertising campaign for swimwear and beachwear slated for the launch in May. She has also lent her creative expertise and sharp sense of style in designing looks for the collection.

The brand’s summer advertising campaign, which includes TVCs, print ads and billboards, features Mrs. Carter on a beach in Nassau, Bahamas. In one of the ads, she will be wearing thigh, high-waist shorts and a sleeveless shirt, and in the other one the celebrity will be depicted wearing a tie-dyed bikini.

The clothing pieces are from the H&M for Water range, which supports the company’s sustainable image—a quarter of proceeds from the H&M for Water collection’s sales will be donated to the H&M for WaterAid initiative. The company’s green-minded actions have been highlighted in the latest Conscious Actions Sustainability Report.

Photo: Beyoncé in H&M’s summer campaign, www.about.hm.com

The prints have been taken by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, with the commercial being directed by Jonas Akerlund, who also created ad films for Dior and Stoli and shot a movie for the 2012 men’s H&M collection. The upcoming spot uses a new song by Beyoncé “Standing On The Sun,” slated for a global release in May. There’s another connection between the campaign and the singer’s career—the ads will be featuring the phrase “Beyoncé as Mrs Carter in H&M,” and her upcoming world tour is titled “The Mrs. Carter Show.”

“In the campaign Beyoncé is wearing the key pieces from H&M you need for life in the sun this summer. There’s the perfect bodycon dress, as well as a flowing sun dress that makes a real statement. And of course there are the bikinis, especially the fringed bikini. What makes these pieces even more special is that Beyoncé herself had input into the design, and they are full of her own personal style,” commented Ann-Sofie Johansson, Head of Design, H&M.

The new collection and collaboration is to help the Swedish retailer to recover from the slump in sales over the past three months. H&M shared that like-for-like sales fell 3 percent in the first quarter, but the company is eyeing a yet bigger chain expansion than planned—it aims to open 350 stores in 2013 instead of the previously announced 325. In 2014, the company is planning to enter the Australia market—this will be the second country in the southern hemisphere after Chili, where H&M’s stores will open in the first half of 2013.