Brand Name Mania- Jimmy Choo for H&M

At the ungodly hour of 630 AM Saturday morning, I got an SMS from my girlfriend that said, “I’m going to H&M to queue for the opening day of the Jimmy Choo Collection- Wanna come?” Ummm.. Let me think about it for one second..NOT! I rolled back over and in comfort of my bed, I dreamt about people waiting on line in the morning chill.

Later on, I met that girlfriend for coffee and she showed me her bag full of treasures. I tried to look at her goods and she jokingly said “PAWS OFF!” Apparently she dropped 17,000 HKD in a half-hour’s time. 17,000 HKD at H&M-in 30 minutes! Someone was profiting big-time off the recessionista trend!

My friend said that you could tell that there were several people who had camped overnight. Some savvy shoppers had sent their helpers to stand in the queue, and there were even a few men there. There were mostly local Honkies on  line and a just a smattering of expats. The first 160 people were given bracelets in different colors. Each color had to return at certain times and each set of 20 people could enter into the cordoned-off area for 15 minutes at a time to get at the shoes bags and accessories. Each person was only allowed to buy one item of each style.

My friend said that overall the system was very well organized. H&M provided the people in the queue with drinks and snickers bars every so often and if someone had to go to the toilet, they would get a card so they could get their place back in the queue. Security was very strict. Once the doors finally opened for business, the crowd broke out into cheers and applause- just like the applause after a great concert or like when people start clapping when a plane lands safely in bad weather.

H&M hatched an ingenious marketing scheme to collaborate with several Haute Couture designers and have them create collections which were accessible to a wider financial sector. It was an easy way for young ladies to be able to afford the designer of their dreams without shelling out the cash that only their parents could afford. H&M has had collections from Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Comme des Garcons, Viktor and Rolf, Roberto Cavalli and Matthew Williamson but so far I believe that Jimmy Choo has been the one of the most successful of them all.

Jimmy Choo shoes went down in the annals of fashion history thanks to being mentioned repeatedly in ‘Sex and the City’. H&M’s brilliant publicity blitz created a frenzy around the cheap-and-chic mix-and-match collection. Cash-strapped ‘recessionistas’ had been drooling over the affordable designer hotness on fashion blogs, magazine spreads, billboards and TV ads months before the line would make its debut.

While I don’t personally recall some of the other collections, I remember the Cavalli collection was extremely successful. There were very few pieces left after the opening day. The Matthew Williamson collection, however, was not quite as successful. His line looked a bit polyester and had an Indian boho motif that looked cheap and didn’t quite cut the cake. People bought it anyway because it was Matthew Williamson but it just goes to show that the product actually has to be good to a certain extent and that it’s not just all marketing.

I had to go down to the shop to see for myself what the hoopla was all about and man was it a scene! The entire sidewalk in front of the shop was littered with newspapers wrappers and other debris. There was a girl sitting in front of the shop sobbing. Someone was trying to console her. I could only guess why she was crying. Did she get told off for cutting the queue? Did she get elbowed in the eye in a mad rush towards the merchandise? Or was she crying simply because she just didn't get the pair of shoes she had her heart set on?

Once inside the shop, you could feel the palpable buzz and excitement amongst the shoppers. People were lined up around the shop to get to the accessories area. They were only letting a few people in at a time. Shoppers were hoarding their treasures in a pile and trying on their new shoes and bags with delight. It was like they bought a cheap piece of the glamorous brand name dream.

The stuff was ok. It seemed to be quite glamorous yet easy to wear and pair but to be honest, I’ve seen equally as cool stuff in Mongkok markets and the merchandise did look ‘budget’. I was interested in some of the non-Jimmy items, but I wasn’t about to wade my way through the sea of frenzied shoppers at the cash wrap. No thanks, the last thing I want to do on a Saturday afternoon is to get trampled over a pair of budget stilettos. At this point, the verdict is still out whether or not people will even be able to walk in their H&M Choos or if the heels will even make it past one night on Wyndham Street.

The whole thing could only be described as ‘intense’. I was glad I was in Hong Kong and not in New York or Paris where I imagine some real ghetto catfights breaking out and heels being jabbed in someone’s eye. I’m happy to report  that me, my eyes and my bank balance came out of H&M alive and intact.
 

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