High street fashion collaborations are a bit like the frequency of reality contests on our tellies. Months can go by with relatively normal high street activity then kaboom, you can’t turn a corner without some tie-up or other. Unlike the ballroom dancing, spider-eating, or pop song caterwauling which dominates the reality show airwaves however, the latest batch of designer versus high-street match-ups to have arrived on our shores are really quite good.
November has been particularly frenetic on the collaborative front. H&M’s windows are a strapped and studded riot of Jimmy Choo designed party gear, while Gap’s are populated by Godzilla-sized cut-outs of cutesy kids decked out in Stella McCartney casuals.
Not even the Biblical rain, which punished the south east of the country on Jimmy Choo’s Saturday launch day at H&M, dampened the spirits of the battalions of loyal devotees. The Swedish retailer’s three Oxford Street stores were a roadblock of semi-bedraggled, mahogany-toned, Hollyoaks look-alikes armed to their whitened teeth with bank plastic in one hand and as much Jimmy Choo merchandise as they could seemingly carry hanging from every other available limb.
Judging by the amount of Jimmy Choo for H&M activity on Ebay, some of the more industrious shoppers caught up in the shopping squall will have already made money on their purchases. Just this morning Fashion Buyer spotted a pair of peep-toe suede ankle boots with a £99.99 retail price fetching £147 online, with studded heels priced at £79.99 going for £110, and at last look the sequinned layered vest top which in-store was £39.99 fetched a princely £60. There’s even a single-shoulder leather dress on Ebay (priced in-store at £149.99) carrying a Buy It Now price of £250.
The popularity of the collection should come as no surprise and serves as a testament to H&M’s canny ability to snare the world’s most desirable designers. Jimmy Choo has an international and celebrity-endorsed reputation for glamorous trend-led footwear, whose mainline prices on shoes and bags remain prohibitive to most. The Jimmy Choo tie-up, like every other one out there, may sit at the top of the high street’s price architecture, but it still presents a relatively democratic opportunity for Regular Joes to buy into the dream. And, as has been the case with most of H&M’s previous tie-ups, the product too is impressive. Choo’s stud-festooned skyscraper heels and rock-chic leather bags tick trend boxes eloquently. Even the apparel range, not an area of Choo’s expertise and an add-on which could be seen as a sneaky way by H&M of extrapolating more cash off the back of the hype, is pretty competent and sits in line with the collection’s overall rock’n’roll personality.
H&M then should be saluted not only for consistently creating collaborative collections which the general public can by-and-large afford, but also for paying out to recruit the hottest designers to work with while ensuring the collections produced under the H&M label are illustrative of the styles which each designer would create for their own brands. A neat trick.
What do you think about the Jimmy Shoo for H&M range? And which collaborations have been the best and worst. Leave a comment and let us know.
Source URL: http://icip2idayusof.blogspot.com/2009/11/monday-moan-jimmy-choo-touches-down-at.htmlWhat do you think about the Jimmy Shoo for H&M range? And which collaborations have been the best and worst. Leave a comment and let us know.
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