› Dec 8, 2011 ‹
versace for h&m adventure
B-A-N-A-N-A-S!
I had been debating for a few weeks on whether to go out for the Versace for H&M release on November 19th. The hype was freaking nuts leading up to it, thanks to their genius marketing tactics like slowly leaked ads and videos, their disturbingly cool commercial featuring Lindsey Wixson and Daphne Groeneveld as fembots, and their star-studded runway show with performances by Nicki Minaj and Prince. I was conflicted for a couple weeks on whether I’d actually haul my booty out there at the crack of dawn for one of these limited edition pieces.
I had heard all the hype about previous designer collaborations like the Lanvin for H&M collection last year and the famous Missoni x Target and even gotten a few pieces from Rodarte x Target. However, the Lanvin and Versace for H&M pricepoint was way higher than I could justify to myself. I decided against going for Lanvin because I didn’t need a ruffly dress with a minimum price of $200 a pop. However, I remember seeing my friend lovingly stroke her Lanvin for H&M fur coat in person. I could just tell how happy she was for going through the craze last year and getting herself a piece of Lanvin history. I also casually checked out the cute and whimsical Missoni x Target collection online, but I was only mildly interested in the rainboots, flats or possibly a cardigan. Definitely not enough to fight hoards of people for them. I eventually did manage to grab a pair of those iconic zigzaggy flats while I went on a random Target trip. They must have been a return and purposefully hidden because there was only one pair of flats left tucked in some random corner of the shoe section, away from the leftover Missoni pumps.
The more I looked at the Versace for H&M collection, the more my weak little brain convinced myself I needed a piece. What finally convinced me to go was realizing how in love with Versace’s Spring 2011 RTW collection. Here’s proof that I was in love with that ‘mermaid’ dress since last September! My friend and I were feeling super hardcore and decided to go really early to the Santana Row H&M in San Jose. I couldn’t even sleep the night before because I was just too excited! It was pitch dark outside when we arrived at 5am and there was already a line about 100 people deep. People came prepared for the cold long wait with coffee, blankets, chairs and their thickest winter gear, although some people were treating it like a fashion show and wearing itty bitty shorts and dresses. :P There was a lot of time to kill before the 8am store opening, and as the time came closer to hand out wristbands, more and more security detail showed up. They were pretty cranky, but I understand their grumpiness at waking up at 4am to keep a bunch of Versace fiends in check.
~8am yay we can actually see the store entrance!
They handed out the wristbands around 7:15am, and our 4am wakeup call earned us a 9:45am wristband. Group 6 of 14.. Not bad. We were shuffled in pretty quickly and entered the store around 8:05. It was freaking NUTS. People were crowding in front of the barricaded area and packed in like animals trying to grab a peek at what wasleft. The people that were shopping were really aggressive and actually running over the sales staff.
The items I was most interested in were their studded leather jackets, the Spring 2011 RTW inspired ‘mermaid’ dress, possibly a scarf and their cute lace-up booties. I was holding onto hope that there were still some leather jackets behind the giant tiger print partition as you can see in the pictures, but I could overhear people frantically asking the H&M sale associates if any of the pieces on the mannequins were still available. I am 99% sure that the leather jackets were sold out within the first 5-10 minutes, including the clothes on the mannequins. I read that some stores only had 7 leather jackets total in stock. Santana Row is one of the smaller H&M stores compared to the larger cities and I wouldn’t be surprised if it also had a very small number available. The H&M staff took away the mannequins within the first hour because of the onslaught of questions and I think people were starting to snatch stuff off of them.
In our happy delirium. Ignore my cracked-out-ness
It was pretty discouraging seeing the Versace for H&M pieces literally disappear before our very eyes. After the leather and studded part of the collection, the black items were the fastest to go. The sales associates would rearrange and consolidate things, but people were just grabbing anything they could get their hands on. To take our minds off of it and kill time before our turn, we wandered the store trying to look for the Mens’ collection. To my dismay, it was out in the open where everyone was waiting and completely empty by the time I decided to look. Poor BF! I was planning on buying him the simple black dress shirt for Xmas, but oh well.
We met someone that was one of the first 20 people in line and had been waiting since 8pm the night before. He had 3-4 bags full of Versace for H&M merchandise and graciously asked if we wanted the yellow studded dress in a size 2. We were interested in getting it for a friend, but little did we know, this guy was going to charge us $40 for the privilege of buying it ourselves. :P Eff that. I knew that a lot of people were there just to hock stuff on Ebay, but I didn’t know people had the balls to actually sell in the store. I had half a mind to tell a security guard, but we declined and waited for our turn. “You don’t want the dress? What about accessories?” NO!
The closest I will ever be to any of the leather and studded collection
When our turn came up, there were only 2 racks of dresses left and a few of the more flamboyant pieces on the walls. I knew that I had to charge through the other people in Group 6 to get to those racks of dresses and have any hope of getting my coveted dress. I had seen a couple of red dresses moments earlier and was hoping that they were still available when it was my turn.
The sales associate yelled “GO!” and I bulldozed through! There was ONE red dress left on the rack and there was a girl touching the skirt. I grabbed the hanger and she screamed at me to let go. C’mon, she was just touching the fabric, the hanger was still on the rack and she was smaller than me. It. Was. MINE. We tug-o-war’d it for a minute or so but I was NOT going to let the one last red mermaid dress go. When I looked at her armful of stuff, I saw that she already had a red dress in her arms! At that moment, I was like HELLLLL NO! I yelled “you already HAVE ONE! This one is MINE!” yanked it, and RAN. I anxiously looked at the tag when it was clearly in my possession and the clouds parted, the sun shone through and it was MY SIZE! It was meant to be! :D
I brought a few more dresses including the longer purple ‘mermaid’ dress and purple babydoll and my friend brought a few pairs of shoes into the dressing room. The red dress was the perfect fit, but the other dresses didn’t look quite as nice in person or were too big. It was pretty hard to let go of the purple dresses knowing that they were the last ones left, the temptation of selling it on Ebay and the fact that the moment I let go, it would be gone forever. There were still a ton of people outside and it was only right to give more people a chance to grab a piece of Versace for their long wait; and so I gave in to common sense and decency. Although there were a bunch of hungry eyes glaring at me to give the dresses to them, I handed them over to a H&M sales associate to be fair. As we left the store at 9:45am, there was one single rack of clothing, books, and shoes remaining and a huge line still waiting outside.
My shopping warrior outfit: Abercrombie fur-trim jacket, Old Navy sweater, Forever 21 jeans, H&M chunky scarf, random boots
I read online that most of the Versace for H&M items weren’t bringing a huge profit on Ebay and that a lot of items have been returned to H&M stores. At least there is still hope for those that were disappointed on the initial release day if they go check out the H&M returns. I’m guessing the most brightly colored stuff and embellished accessories didn’t do well on Ebay just due to their impracticality. I’m happy people’s greediness and selfishness in trying to grab what they can and sell it on Ebay came back to bite them in the butt!
Here you can see my beautiful trophies: the gorgeous lace-up booties and my beloved red mermaid dress :) They are definitely in the top 5 most expensive items I’ve spent on myself, but I’m really happy with my purchases and my fun shopping adventure! I’ll probably sit out crazy releases in the near future, Black Friday shopping and Christmas sales included. Overall, it was a really memorable experience and I came out with a funny story and two gorgeous pieces of Versace history!
