New Crowd Control Rules for H&M’s Jimmy Choo Collection
Based on previous designer collection frenzy at H&M, this year’s Jimmy Choo Collection will be handled differently.
Fashionistas prepare yourselves.
According to a friend of mine who works for the Swedish giant retailer at the downtown Ste-Catherine location, there will be massive crowd control from the get-go. Everyone who lines up before the doors will receive a color-coded bracelet, each bracelet will allow shoppers to shop for only 10 minutes before they are kicked out. Thus limiting only a certain number of people to shop within the new Jimmy Choo collection, and avoiding nasty catfights.
Shoppers are NOT allowed to select 2 of the same items, which will prevent eBay scalpers from reselling the goods at a stratospheric amount.
This will probably mean that a long lineup will mean a long wait. But for the sake and sanity of H&M workers and everyone beside them, I think the company has taken good steps much like Uniqlo +J approach to give everyone a chance in getting a piece of the new limited collection.
Be prepared to fork out $275 for bags, and about $125-$175 for the shoes.
So the price range is about the same as you would shop at an Aldo or Nine West store for a pair of shoes. Are they worth it? I wonder.
Jimmy Choo hits select stores Saturday, November 14, 2009.
You can also take a look at Sonia Rykiel’s upcoming unpractical lingerie collection at Nitrolicious.
Image credit: H&M
Videos on Matthew Williamson’s H&M Collection
A couple of sneak peak videos of Matthew Williamson’s upcoming H&M collection have popped up online.
FashionTelevision did a capsule review of his Spring 2009 collection and a short interview of his thoughts on producing a collection for H&M. You might want to ignore what the celebrities say. We get to see a little bit more peacock concoctions and Matthew standing next to his favorite piece. Unfortunately, FTV doesn’t allow me to share the video, so here’s a link to the video.
You’ll find another video on YouTube going a little more in-depth with short snips of fashion journalists, which is posted under Videophile on my site.
Matthew Williamson’s H&M Preview
April Showers Us With Spring News
After several pushback reports, British fast fashion power house, TopShop, will be set to open its doors in Soho on April 2nd, 2009. The 25,000 square foot flagship location will contain all of TopShop’s lines including men, women, accessories, shoes, capsule collections (which included Preen and Christopher Kane), emerging designers, Kate Moss’ collections, and Unique - a new in-house design collection. With so many choices offered to consumers along with their style advisor, Topshop is sure to give other competitors a run for their money.
TopShop is actually one of the more expensive fast fashion brands, with most items at a starting price at $50 and up. This already eliminates (or perhaps deters) a good segment of consumers who are pinching their wallets during the heavy recession. However, NYC is filled with many fashionistas who tend to have a bigger spending budget than the rest of America, so I doubt the store will perform poorly if it’s able to keep an interesting inventory.
April also marks the arrival of the long-awaited online opening of The Outnet, Net-a-porter’s online discount store on designer goods. With recent reports of Net-a-porter earning a profit during this recession, and their buying methods of selecting only one or two order of each size for each style, has probably helped them in eliminating a good deal of overstock. Still, there will always be leftovers, and what better way of selling the unsold (untouched, and unwrinkly) stock than discount? Most discount stores I encounter, mainly Winners, always leaves me with a bad after taste when racks and racks of unorganized merchandise have been relentlessly pawed and damaged. I’m personally looking forward for this launch, and I doubt that this will affect Net-a-porter’s sales since I always wait with baited breath what will they bring in next every Monday and Wednesday.
H&M is giving little fanfare to Matthew Williamson’s featured collection for Spring, yet his designs are set to hit stores on April 23rd, 2009. Preview images of his collection have already popped up on Fashionologies and the designs look to have a lot of promise. Williamson will probaby have to do a little without his signature bead and embroidered works (I’m assuming perhaps only one or two pieces priced at $300 and up), but his use of bright colors are usually spot on and fun. More designs are set to follow in May for the summer collection. This is one of my most anticipated collections as I’m a huge fan of Williamson’s color clashing sensibilities.
Matthew Williamson for H&M Spring/Summer 2009
Isn’t it a little early to announce yet another designer collaboration with H&M? I mean didn’t they want Rei Kawakubo to bask in the glory of her collection? It seems like the announcement of Matthew Williamson coming onboard for a Summer collection seems to sort of eclipse or steal her thunder. Her collection did go on sale only a couple of weeks ago. Btw, there are still some pieces left at the downtown Montreal location if you’re still vying for a piece.
Not to say I’m not excited for Williamson, in fact, I’m very thrilled to learn this news. I’ve been watching his collections for a couple of seasons now, and what I love about this British designer is his mosaics of color in his work. Not to say all of his clothes are great, but I certainly think his attention to detail and color coordination are to be admired. I’ve been eyeing this royal purple (blue?) cashmere sweater on Net-a-porter since the fall, but can’t find a good reason to spend over $1000 to acquire it. I’ve also been fancying his rainbow colored Chapelle weave coat. I would certainly wear it on bright occasions and the colors make me smile. But because he works with such detail, most of his pieces run far over $1000, hardly affordable to collect.
I see him as a spring/summer designer anyway, vivid colors always make me think of warmer days. So I definitely expect to see an array of colorful silk dresses, and hopefully a few embroidered pieces.
Williamson’s collection will arrive at H&M stores on April 23rd, 2009. Though Williamson may gain a few more fans of his work, they will have to save all their pennies to purchase one his regular pieces, and in this economic slump, they will certainly be a hard sell.
Image credits: Style.com
