Friday, September 16, 2011

Shopping at the Versace H&M shopping event...

Shopping at the Versace H&M event is without a doubt going to be an ordeal. Here's a little insight into shopping's most trying event.

3 Years ago I brought you an inside look into the Roberto Cavalli line for H&M (on my other blog AnnieNYC) because I could not have been any more excited for it. And now I find out Versace is this year’s designer?! Ah yeeah...and this collection will even have a home collection! Eep!

But if you want to pick up a few things from the collection, it's not going to be easy. Remember when I told you to be afraid, be very, very afraid when Cavalli rolled into town? Well it's quite possible this one will be even worse, you may want to bring some brass knuckles…just kidding? I actually ended up in a state of shock about 5 minutes into the Cavalli opening, something I had never experienced. It was quite bizarre, so now I’m actually scared, lol…but will go anyway. I’ve been to every single mashion event since they began. That is Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf, Commes de Garcon, Roberto Cavalli, Jimmy Choo,  Lanvin….and this will be no exception, especially since I have a strange affinity for Versace.

Thankfully, and luckily for everyone involved, on opening day H&M will probably do the bracelet thing again, which is the only way they’re going to keep people safe and allow people a decent shopping experience with any hopes of getting what they came for. No more stampede of 300 people rushing in at the same (unlike Cavalli…*shudder*). Thank goodness.

It goes something like this: around 6am they hand out a few hundred color-coded bracelets. Each color represents an entry time. So the first 50 bracelets for example might be yellow, and wearers all enter around 9am. They have 15 minutes to choose items and head to the fitting room/register. The next set is another color, and entry starts after the yellow group exits, etc. But this means you’ll need to get there earlier to be in the same spot on line you were in previous years. So between the timed entry and the increased demand, if you showed up at 5am before, show up at 2am. If you were there at 2am for Choo or Cavalli show up at 11pm to be in the same spot on the line. I swear I am not kidding. Lol. I’m not. And thankfully, customers will only be permitted to buy 2 of any given style (the same dress in different colors is still considered 1 style).

The collection will be in 300 stores worldwide, vs. the usual 200 stores of previous years. But don’t expect to see additional stores in your area with the collection. If your store didn’t carry Choo or Lanvin, don’t get your hopes up, they will probably not carry Versace either. The additional 100 will be mostly stores that have recently opened in larger markets, like Japan, China, etc.

So there you have it, be there or be square. If you plan on rolling up at noon at think you might pick up something you saw in a magazine, that's just not going to happen. You might get...well, the pieces no one else could possibly want, which includes you, so basically, be there when the store opens, or just wait and buy stuff on ebay.