Versace for H&M review

Yesterday I went to H&M for their latest designer collaboration. We've been talking about it since June and the moment to touch and buy the clothes is finally arrived. As you can imagine the queue was stressful. I think that shopping and stress should never go along together since we usually shop to relax but I waited patiently in line to shop the collection. I know that Versace for H&M will launch in US and Canada only tomorrow so I thought to share my opinion with you hoping that will be someway useful for your shopping.

two chokers, two bracelets

 

my sister bought this statement choker

the shopping bags

What we (me and my sister) bought yesterday: a skirt,a greek chocker and bracelet each and a beautiful scarf

 Studded pieces are amazing in real life especially the colored ones! This pink one is really beautiful and detailed. Even the back is fully studded, the zipper has a round puller with the greek fret. The front have 4 or more different kind of studs on it, it's definitely worth the price tag! I was surprised by the blue dress you  see on the left. It wasn't my favorite on the lookbook but when I tried on I changed my mind. It' perfectly tailored, it's smaller at the waist, it really follows the curves plus it has a funny hem: shorter on one side then longer and pleated on the other. What I loved the most of this collection are the bright colors. They're energetic and saturated. I know some people would judge them as too flashy but I like colors!

What I couldn't get my hands on: the black studded skirt (even if looked a little toyish in real life) and the baroque bag

The shopping experience:Pros and Cons

Pros

Lenghts

Donatella wasn't parsimonious with lenghts! There are no very short mini skirt! Every dress and skirt are long enough!

Quantity

H&M stocked enought dresses for everyone. If you've been to previous designer collaborations you may know that  by 11 am the collection was almost sold out and there were "3" pieces of clothing left for the poor girls without the bracelets! This is not going to happen this time! Yes, maybe when your turn arrives the most wanted pieces will be sold out but there will be still a lot of clothes to choose from and to buy. I was surprised because even in the afternoon the bomber jacket, the red and purple lace dresses,the fringe dresses and all those printed ones were still available to buy for everyone.

No, it's not that the collection wasn't a success in sales because it was (I saw people going out of the shop with a lot of bags filled with clothes!) I think that this time they produced more clothes! I'm not suggesting you to go shopping late, I know that London sold out really fast, I think it will depend on demand too.

Quality

I know I'm not the first saying this: the quality of clothes is higher than regular H&M, prices are higher but even quality is! If you're a fan of it I read that belts are made in Italy.

Fitting

I think that fitting is regular H&M for most things. I heard someone complaining on the fitting of some dresses like the black one with gold buttons and the purple babydoll, they said they needed a larger size than their regular but I think it depends a lot on bodytype. As always choose what flatters your bodytype.

Queue management

If you've never been at other designer collaboration you maybe not know how the queue is managed: the first 280 people arriving at the store get a bracelet and they can shop the collection in groups of 20 before other people. Unlike other years, this time the staff continued to manage the queue allowing only 20 people at a time to enter the fenced area even after the end of the bracelets groups. This allowed people to have a more quiet shopping experience.

No queue for men's collection

Men don't need to queue (isn't that frustrating?) so if there's a place to shop when you arrive in shop and you don't have the bracelet is men's collection!

Cons

Not every store will have home and men collection. If you check the store locator section in h&m website you'll notice that there are still different categories women, men and home. If you are interested in buying men's clothes be sure to check if the store you choose have them.

Beware that maybe not the whole collection is available in shop! Many of the dresses from the collection weren't available to buy in the H&M I've been to and not because they were sold out but because they never reached the store! Even the black studded leather dress wasn't available, I mean how could they ignore that one, it was the emblem of the collection! Maybe this won't happen in your store but I found it very frustrating! Here's a list of all the unavailable pieces in the store I've been to:the leather dress, the heavy leather jacket and the leather trench, the metallic dresses even the black boots and the pink shoes.

Prices

I think there was a lot of unjustified confusion on prices. The buzz for the collection started on June but H&M website didn't load all the prices of clothes neither the night before the launch(at least not on the italian website). Plus some of those they loaded weren't right! The bomber jacket cost 99 euros and not 129 like they wrote, the studded skirt was 99 euros and not 149 and the men leather jacket was 299 euros and not 349. Prices on these items have been lowered and this is a good thing but this last minute change can create confusion on one who decided not to buy those pieces because of their price tag. I hope you won't have the same problems with US and Canada websites.

 Limited time and other strange rules

1. You get only 10 minutes  to shop in the fenced area so try to get everything you would like to try on. When the time ends you have to get out. If you got a wrong size you can go back and ask the staff to change it but you have to give them back the cloth you tried so you can't really compare a size with the other.
2. You can have a different size but not something different! If you want something you didn't get the first round you have to queue again!
3. Each person can buy only one of everything. 

Did you know?

Dresses with hearts print have Gianni Versace signature on them!

The bomber jacket, the home pillows and the baroque bag are in velvet.

Bottom line :my personal shopping advices

1. get the skirts: they're really well made and tailored, for example pleats don't go up till the belt and this avoides fullness at the top giving a more slim figure; every pleat is decorated with a gold point and I love this details
2. get the scarves! They're soft with beautiful prints and aren't too expensive
3.  get the pink studded dress

I hope this little shopping guide will be helpful and don't forget to tell me what you bought tomorrow!

Donatella Versace opening Regent street H&M in London. She is wearing a fitted version of the studded pink dress(It doesn't have the same style of the one sold in stores, but I think it's even better)