Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz may have been spotted in line at the Rockefeller Center H&M store when his mass collection made its debut Saturday, but the real news was the chaos surrounding the Lanvin Hearts H&M collection. Twitter was ablaze with word that someone had been stabbed for cutting in line at the 34th Street H&M store, and by that afternoon, the Twitterati were still torn about the validity of the story – despite it being reported by a number of online outlets. Though there was no shortage of catfights and cramps from pillaging the Lanvin sections, it turns out that no one was arrested or physically harmed while shopping.
As for the shopping process itself, some H&M lines circled around the corner of stores as early as 5:30 A.M. with shoppers hoping to get first dibs on the covetable merchandise and score a free gift bag with a tote, scarf, and lipstick. The early bird shoppers were given colored bracelets and time slots allowing for 15 minutes of shopping time and unlimited room in the changing rooms. Like nearly every H&M collaboration of seasons past – with the notable exception of Sonia Rykiel where I found myself waiting on line alone, literally, to shop the collection before the store opening – more women and men than have probably ever set foot into an H&M store at one time were grabbing whatever they could get their hands on, though no one was allowed to purchase more than two of any one womenswear item.
While it didn’t take long for items to make their way onto eBay, a number of H&M stores did have pieces from the menswear line and a few lone dresses left around noon on Saturday. Most shoppers seemed very content with their purchases – many of which passed the $1,000 mark – but returns are expected, so those tardy to the Lanvin Hearts H&M party may not be totally out of luck.
