Balmain or H&M?

Something in-between mass market and luxury. 

H&M and Balmain collaboration. A lot has been said so far for and against this collection and such collaborations as a whole. Yet I feel like adding very personal thoughts to what I’ve already said in my latest article for WV Magazine (if you are fluent in Russian, then go read it HERE). Like millions of people on the planet Earth I’m also now marked by #BalmainxHM hashtag. And still this is the very first designer collaboration by H&M that I did invest in. Frankly speaking, if it wasn’t a special pre-sale event invitation from H&M Latvia, I wouldn’t be even sharing anything of this now, I mean visuals, the look and my thoughts. But thanks to Latvian HQ I had a chance to take a look (if we can say so) at the collection before it was sold out, get into massive hype and leave with total of 3 pieces.

As I said above, I never previously invested or queued for H&M designer collaborations that keep causing human madness. I mean waking up super early, or not going to bed at all, queueing for hours and getting pieces without even trying it on sounds more than crazy to me. Let’s be honest, leaving a store like Primark without trying a pajama or a sweater on that costs less than 10 Euro is fine, it’s not something that is meant to stay in ones wardrobe for ever. Simply compare quality of Primark and Balmain (not the collaboration one). My point is, when it comes to designer pieces I look forward to good service and atmosphere (apart from quality of course), be it designer’s boutique, multi brand boutique or corner in a shopping center. But when everyone running, screaming, pushing each other, knocking down racks – the magic of fashion (especially high fashion) disappears.

Speaking of the three pieces from Balmain for H&M collection I did invest in. A tee with big BALMAIN name in front and two statement rings. Entry pieces as they are usually referred in the fashion industry. Let’s go back. When heading to the pre-sale of the collection I wasn’t planning to get anything. At all. In general I wanted to find out the level of quality and how pieces look like in real life. In other words, to check out the collection that is meant to be something between luxury and mass market. What really mesmerized me that very moment were rings. I am kind of obsessed with rings – statement, tiny, minimalistic, luxurious. There’s never too much of rings, even if majority ends up living only in my jewelry box. What about t-shirt? In this case am going to use my ART ME Education speaker’s Eugene Golubev definition – I’m just an ordinary child of marketing (like most of us). An ordinary child of the 21st century marketing yet instead of a chic-y dress or blazer heavily invested in her Fashion Business knowledge update. But that’s another story…