Martin Margiela for H&M

Not being a massive fan of shopping meant that preparing for the H&M Martin Margiela collaboration was tricky. Little did I realise I needed to seriously plan ahead, work out a strategy and have a contingency plan.

For Marni at H&M I had simply breezed in, browsed a little and shopped, but this time my die hard Margiela fan friend Sarah and I had invites to the Vogue preview evening, which was a whole different thing. We needed mood boards, spread sheets, printouts! The pressure was enormous, as unlike Sarah I have never actually owned anything by Margiela and am, if I’m really honest, a little bit scared and in awe of it.

Honestly, sometimes fashion is such hard work!

On the morning of the launch I read an interesting feature on BOF dismissing the idea of High St/designer collaborations as mere marketing campaigns for big retailers. I had also discovered through my BFF Twitter, that Margiela had been sold to Diesel in 2002 and Margiela himself hadn’t been involved since 2009. Cynical old me started wondering about the authenticity of the collection and the whole idea of buying into a designer names owned by a huge companies – but that’s another story.

Sarah reassured me it was ok, as lots of the pieces were re-issues of classic Margiela pieces from the 90’s labelled with tags indicating the season from which it originated and a brief description.

Phew – fashion credentials in check, off we set to join the queue in Regent Street.

Planning ahead for the hero bag

Sarah is something of a fiend in these situations and a professional shopper – so on her advice, I grabbed everything I liked the look of and re-grouped for a post mortem.

We ended up buying everything, deciding to wait till we got home before we got caught up in layers of fabric and unidentifiable details – and thank God we did. After a couple of glasses of Prosecco and a long day, the trying on session was something of a comedy moment!

In my head I looked exactly the fabulous (young) girl below, in reality it was a French and Saunders/Wood and Walters does fashion, comedy sketch.

Hair of dreams

My favourite items were the least gimmicky and out of everything I bought, I will probably only keep the navy skirt – which I love.

If you are a die hard Margiela fan you are probably in the queue right now and will love it. If you’re not, its worth a look (go next Wednesday when everyone takes things back) as the shapes are interesting and the quality good.

 

2 Comments

  • jane gillard says:

    i have a couple of bits from the original collections (in the good old days, pre kids, when I spent a fortune on clothes) and they are still favourites even though they are a bit moth eaten – Im pleased with my purchases today- the quality for the price is good and I think the integrity is still there. I also think Margelia is a good look for the over 40’s as its so mad it’s timeless, agesless and one size fits it!!!!!
    now where did I put those fishnet leggings?? Jane age 47

  • Jane says:

    Jane, it now has the official seal of approved if you like it. You are SO right it’s perfect for the over 40’s, just the right mix of asymmetric and barking mad!

    Jx

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *