Evening all,
Last Thursday saw the launch of one of the biggest collaborations in 2 years for H&M, and for the fashion industry…Isabel Marant Pour H&M. Now when this was announced i screamed with excitement, checked every known forum possible to check i wasn't be fooled and quickly went to twitter to tweet my excitement. Yes I LOVE Isabel Marant that much. I have been a Marant fan for a firm few years, and I ove to play the "Who will H&M collaborate with next" game. I won this round as it was only in passing a few days before i had said to my friend it would make a fabulous collaboration.
On the lead up to the launch of the collaboration
Marant hosted events to celebrate her collection. A collection she has prided herself with maintaining the quality of her own mainline and it's side line
"Etoile". This was a key point she wanted to make clear. Why? Well we all know that H&M collaborations retain the quality of the store (Don't get me wrong the quality can be amazing but sizing is never the best for the Swedish brand). Remember those pleated skirts from the
Versace collaboration? My size 16 skirt still doesn't fit me because it's a 14 in reality. But hey, I am not complaining, once I'm in that bad boy it will be deemed vintage but back to
Marant. Through press days, the collection had a good feedback, sizing was good, quality was to the
Etoile standard and those tasselled boots were to die for. SOLD.
Every woman who lives, breathes and eats fashion always says "Oh I won't get involved with this collaboration, the one before was awful, the sizing is awful, the queues will be manic, the website will crash". Does it stop us? Nope. I think it drives us more insane, the mass consumerism, the hysteria made my social media and the general media. Seeing a blogger you absolutely love with the pieces you convince yourself you don't need or will be crap…it's a drive to do anything possible to get your hands on.
My drive was sold instantly before all these thoughts and this time I had that burning fear of "What if I don't get anything?" Flash back to my semi melt down with the Lanvin collaboration. It wasn't pretty and I was living in Wales and Cardiff was my closest store. I cried. I went on Ebay. I paid stupid money for a dress i wore once. NEVER AGAIN.
Thanks to my amazing friend Jools, I was able to get my hands on everything i wanted and more with a ticket to the Vogue & GQ Pre shopping event.
Here was lil old me thinking the event was going to be civilised and calm and put together, It wasn't. Thanks to the Boyfriends wisdom we turned up a little over and hour early and got into a queue with 40 people already ahead of us and the security telling us that the maximum capacity expected was going to be 800 people. Gulp. As soon as were allowed in, we were directed to part 1 of the shopping area. Mayhem began. I saw women running, snatching, swearing and pushing. I tried not to stoop low, all I did was grab my bits and moved along. I was a lucky so and so. I ran up to the men's floor before that got busy and grabbed my pieces and set up shop to try on my bits. Oh and to the waiter who I've met at Miu Miu and Chanel events, thank you for having my back and also for the giant laughs over where you knew me. Too sweet.
I was extremely lucky that my boyfriend Alan used his brain and suggested waiting early because I would never have been lucky and would of been one of the people who approached me to have my bits (some cheeky enough to try and grab my items). After paying for our clothes we decided to relax and enjoy the music, the food and the bubbles on tap. We found our lovely friends we made in the queue and had a good old laugh and a bit of a dance.
So here are the bit's i managed to get my hands on…
I am so happy with my buys. I even made sure I wore my long hooded knit cardigan on Thursday which impressed a lot of people.
Cinema date wearing:
Wool black and white jacket- Isabel Marant
Jeans- Topshop
Boots- Chloe
Bag- Chanel Boy Bag
Beanie- Marc By Marc Jacobs.
Day Look:
Denim Shirt- Topshop
Leather Trouser- Dorothy Perkins
Wool Cardigan- Isabel Marant Pour H&M
Boots- Chanel
Bag- Chanel Boy Bag.
I am sad i didn't get my hands on the tasselled boots…
They were the first to go along with the beaded jacket.
I must say the experience H&M put their online customers through this time was quite shameful. On my quest for the boots and jacket I got caught in the Online failure. The site managed to breakdown in a record breaking 2 minuets. Originally scheduled for 9am, the online store resumed service at 10:30 still with server problems which encouraged customers to use the over the phone service. I hope with whatever collaboration H&M have planned next they will be more prepared. Especially if it had the same buzz as this Marant collection which is the most wearable collection for a while.
Now the hysteria has calmed down and everything is triple the price on Ebay, I would love to know what everyone managed to get there hands on?
Again…Thank you Jools. You really did make this lil lady happy.
Lots of Love
Nadia
