High Fashion on High Street

Well hello darlings, you are here and I appreciate that.

Welcome Back!

After exactly six months of unending buzz, and all the hype lately, thanks to the epic promotion (even I was sucked into using hashtag Balmainnation :-0), the highly anticipated capsule collection, the baby parented by Balmain and H&M was dropped on Nov. 5th in select H&M stores. Some pieces from this collection had nothing to do with subtlety or minimalism. Over the top comes to mind, so does 70’s flair and opulence. 

The Jist

I drank a sh*t load of caffeine and waited up till 5am when the collection dropped online and in stores. Oops, website crashed and the error message about a lot of visitors on the site kept popping up. I refreshed as frantically as possible, ended up saying f*ck the site, moved on to plan B which was to pick my friend up from around the corner and head out to the store. The line of people that camped out all night wrapped almost around the big city building on Powell street San Francisco that houses the brand.

Holy cow! It didn’t matter if they were all reseller gangs or folks shopping for themselves, it was time for plan C. We headed off to Westfield mall two blocks away and were greeted by a shorter line. Colored bands were handed out and the color you got determined what time you could go in and shop. I applaud the brand for great organization, letting shoppers in 15 at a time and allowing each group 20 minutes to shop. And oh, you could only buy 2 pieces of each item. We enlisted the services of a shopper that was number 2 in line and headed out to get out caffeine fix. She delivered, and I’ll be using her again in the future. Boy was that a smart move, the first group that went in cleaned out the collection!

The Look

I had obsessed over this jacket like I said in my review here and I'm glad to have snagged one before it was completely gone. The rack that held them was picked clean in no time, I kid you not! Today I’m showing how I styled it as an anchor with very simplistic supporting pieces. I stayed away from thigh high boots cos that seemed to be the "default" way to style this piece following in the footsteps of the models in the campaign. This heavily embellished piece needed no introduction. I balanced out the trendy jacket with classic solid black high waisted shorts and a simple lace bandeau for a neutralizing effect. I even kicked heels to the curb (which I rarely do) as I was determined not to have any other piece competing with the star of the look aka this beautiful beaded velvet jacket - BBVJ, which btw is still an H&M piece regardless, hehe. I look forward to styling it differently soon. Pops of color here and there maybe, we'll see.

Then What?

Like I read in one mag and I forget which one, the worlds of street wear, fast fashion and luxury are now almost indistinguishable. I nodded my head in agreement. These fresh out of the oven pieces look nothing different that the luxe versions from the House of Balmain. I foresee everyday street pieces being elevated to higher levels by the fashion elite and street style stars sporting pieces that would normally only be on runways. Like Coco Chanel rightly said, "Everyday is a Fashion show and the world is the runway”.

The Verdict

One thing I can say for sure is that it was another successful H&M collaboration. H&M has collaborated with fashion/style icons from Karl Lagerfield in 2004, Versace in 2011 to Alexander Wang in 2014, Balmain in 2015, who is it going to be in 2016, 2017, 2018 and beyond? Any predictions? Any one in particular you’d like to see offer those enticing iterations/prices to their fans?

The Dream

I’d love to see <<< DRUM ROLL >>> : Elie Saab, Zuhair Murad, Krikor Jabotian, Valentin Yudashkin, Alexander McQueen, Fausto Puglisi in that order. They all have one thing in common: unique, over the top, jaw dropping, so up my alley.

Your thoughts?

Deets

Jacket - Balmain x H&M

Top - Bebe

Shorts - Zara

Ankle Boots - Zara

Thanks for reading and you guessed it, keep thinking the purple thoughts, :))).

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