Comme des GaRCons increases H&M sales, makes fashionistas happy
Excalibur, York University's Paper, 2008
There are very few reasons as to why I will wake up at 5:30am. One of them is catching a flight at the airport. On November 13, though, I learned something new about myself: I will wake up early for fashion.
This is the date that Japanese fashion designers Comme des Garcons participated as a limited edition guest designer for H&M. In Toronto, the line was available at H&M Eaton’s Centre and Yorkville locations at regular opening hours 10:00am.
H&M has previously featured designers such as Roberto Cavalli, Karl Lagerfeld, and Stella McCartney. Featured designer prices are slightly above H&M’s normal prices and are hundreds if not thousands of dollars cheaper than originals, thus making the trek well worth it.
This time, head designer for Comme des Garcons, Rei Kawakubo, stole the hearts of the H&M Company – and especially haute Japanese boys and girls – with her incredibly original, avant-garde, cut-out mind-boggling fashions. Kawakubo’s designers are very anti-fashion in nature; her looks are transformable, asymmetrical, dramatic, deconstructed, and this season, heavily polka-dotted.
After weeks of religious online viewing of the limited edition H&M collection, I decided I was ready to spend my money and time. Many of the pieces make shoppers think twice, and the more these pieces are viewed, the more one falls in love with them.
The commute from my house in Mississauga began early in the morning. I arrived at H&M Yorkville just after 7:00am to a crowd of fifteen. As the hours went by, the numbers grew, but were nothing in comparison to the Eaton’s Centre shoppers who had already reached the corner of Yonge and Dundas by 6:00am. As the rain pounded on our jackets and our umbrellas, I kept telling myself the wait would be worth it. Three hours later, four garments later, and approximately three hundred and fifty dollars later, I had won my badge of honour.
It wasn’t easy, though. Customers grabbed everything from the line as quickly as possible and bought them immediately or tried them on swiftly. The rest of the items probably ended up on eBay. No time for checking sizes, although H&M’s policy did state that only two identical items were allowed to be purchased.
A future note to H&M: please do not feature any more amazing designers because waiting for hours before store open in November is completely undesirable. In the end, I still love Comme des Garcons and their pieces will forever remain eccentric and timeless.