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Hunger Games for Fashion – Available only in selected H&M stores
If there was only one retailer brand, knows how to make middle-class shoppers excited and keeping up them surprised, I would definitely say H&M. The brand becomes well-known with its collaborations with famous designers and making luxury brands more reachable, allowing all fashionistas to have some pieces of these brands in their closets. All the limited editions of these collaborations were welcomed pleasurably and frantically on the very first day of its launch in the shops. And the latest ‘Balmain X H&M’ collection wasn’t an exception also.
The launch of the limited edition for France was 5th of November and I was excited and nervous days before after watching the crazy mob in Istanbul launch of the collection on TV. Even it was an ‘invitation- only event’, just for VIP customers (like celebrities, artists, designers), looks like everybody forgot how ‘VIP’ they are. Just after the opening of the gates of the shop, the invitees attacked like crazy to the shelves and you can see everybody fighting with each other to take a piece without looking what it is or which size is it. That made the headlines not just in Turkey. The frenzy was everywhere and just before leaving the house to get my part at H&M queue, I was already questioning myself if I was ready to be part of these ‘Hunger Games for Fashion’ or not 🙂
When I reached the selected H&M store in Lyon for this collection, I was already demoralized. There was a huge, long, a-twisty-snake-like queue in front and all around the shop. After all, I was confused with the beginning hour of the sales. While expecting a glorious front row of the queue, I was already some hundredth person 😦 The sale had already been started and there were some ladies promenading proudly around the queue with their black-gold Balmain shopping bags. The H&M staff was so kind to inform us every 15 minutes about what is left inside (nearly nothing) and warning us to keep our expectations low. They said, there were some customers, had been waiting since last evening until morning, I understood whenever I went there it would be late unless I dare to sleep night before in front of the shop. Fortunately, I haven’t been that much crazy, yet 😉 But all my fellow queue mates and H&M didn’t know that how persistent and stubborn I could be even I joined this ‘Hunger Games’ later than the others.
Some people had given up and left the queue after these warnings and also because of the cold weather. For me, it was already two hours I had been waiting and I had nearly approached to the entrance of the shop, after this point it was a curiosity and resistance case for me more than a shopping passion. How it would had felt to reach the ‘finishing point’ even it the end there’s nothing left to buy? The staff was taking groups of 15-20 person into the shop, like this there wasn’t a big mess and fight like Istanbul one. After every group taken, I was feeling more and optimistic that my turn was coming but at the same time after every group left with bags, I was feeling more and more pessimistic that this wait was non-sense, if in the end I would just found empty shelves. I think last time I felt this much confused and stressed, when I was waiting to take my ‘Carte de Sejour’ (Residence permit in France) in front of the ‘Prefecture’. Of course it was more serious than this, but the resistance and ambition was the same.
After waiting longer, these ‘happy-proud’ customers who had been hanging around the queue with black Balmain shopping bags, started to get on my nerves. Why they were still there after all? What was the point to show what they’ve bought again and again. Were they trying to sell what they’ve bought with a profit margin? If it was the case, we already had the black market of the collection, which just had released couple of hours ago. Of course on that time I didn’t know that this was a big trading opportunity more than a shopping for some people. Just in the evening of the same day that the collection released, there were already pieces was being sold on ebay with double prices, even in some cases more expensive than the classic Balmain range. Somebody needs to pay for all these effort of waiting in the queue and grabbing what you can, don’t they? 😉
In my case, I was there just for a sole reason: Having a Balmain piece on my wardrobe… But it was looking harder and harder by the time. Every customer who leaved the shop was saying ‘There’s nothing left, don’t wait for nothing’. But this made me more persistent instead of discouraged. I was gonna wait until the end to see if it is true or not. How could I know that they were lying because they weren’t allowed to buy pieces more than a limited number, so they don’t want other to buy also. I was struggling with this crazy ideas on my mind, looking like ‘hunger games’ already affected my psychology. I wasn’t read for that 🙂 However, long story short, after waiting for nearly three hours, I was allowed to enter with a group of 10 person. When I reached to the floor where the collection was sold, I saw a rack, with around 5-6 trousers hanged, a pair of boots but just for one second, after they disappeared, and some strap bras. I immediately went for trousers. I saw black and white trousers that I wasn’t very interested in, beside them there were velvet-patterned trousers in green and black. I grabbed two black ones in size 40 and 36. Both of them weren’t my size (as you can imagine size 38 is one of the sizes always run out at very first, since it is so common) So, there were only one hurdle left for me. Which one should I have bought? One size smaller or one size bigger than my size? I was sneaking out of fences that marks the special collection area, and going towards fitting rooms to try them, but stopped by the security by a very firm manner ‘Sorry madame, you can’t pass out of fences, come back here’. I wasn’t intended to force my luck after hours of waiting to reach these trousers so I needed to trust my instinct and sense of proportion: ‘Which size should I buy?’. In the end, I applied the secure rule ‘Take the bigger one, you can always have a chance to make it smaller with a good tailor.” I took the size 40, but after I regret that I didn’t take the size 36 also. It was just 99 Euros and could be a really special gift for someone.
I went to the checkout proud and happy, on that time I could share the same feelings of these ‘promenade with Balmain bags-ladies’. I had done it, after all, I left the shop with a piece that I really liked and three small testers of new Balmain – H&M for women perfume (smells strange in the beginning but after some time it becomes really sexy). I wish I could buy more pieces, I was sad especially missing this dress and jacket but this shows that I need to be better prepared for the next ‘hunger games for fashion’. Even it means sleeping all night in front of a shop, outside? No, not this far for me, fortunately 😉
Low-Cost shopping on the outskirts of Paris: La Vallée Village
Audrey Hepburn should had a reason for saying ‘Paris is always a good idea‘. For a woman, the city of love offers more than just romanticism, shopping opportunity for all tastes. For sure, this can be Audrey’s reason to say that 🙂 But beside the down town, there are many shopping options on the outskirts of Paris, outlet malls like La Vallée Village. If you Google ‘Paris’ and ‘outlet’ words together, this will be the first site you find. Since it is this much famous, I decided to give it a try during one of my visits to Paris.
It is a part of an outlet chain with other branches in other locations like London, Frankfurt, Dublin, Munich, Brussels and so on. You can reach easily from Paris center to here by RER trains or special shuttle services that I will give details afterwards. As many other outlet centers, it is designed like a small village (hence the name), with roads, one or two floor buildings as shops and nice cafes around. When you get out of the main train station ‘Val d’Europe’, just turn to your right and there you see the entrance of the village ‘La Vallee’.
There are 109 shops, cafes included. The brands are various from woman’s wear to men’s fashion, from home decoration to shoes and accessorizes. Most of the shops are high-fashion brands like Armani, Burberry, Celine, Versace, Dolce &Gabbana and Valentino. Besides that you can find, middle-class brands like Diesel, Guess, Lacoste and Superdry. What I like most is there are some brands that I’ve never seen their outlets in any European city before like Michael Kors, Charles Tyrwhitt and Cath Kidston. (You remember this ‘candy shop’ like Kidston? Even you don’t remember the name, when you see their well-known patterns that they use on bags, sleeves, napkins and boxes, you will understand what I mean 😉 )
A small detail I noticed also, there are small notes about the brand and it’s style, on the windows of every shop. Clever idea 😉
So I can hear you asking: “what about the prices?” So here we come to the point of my decision about this mall. I don’t know you but I don’t do all my shopping from high-fashion brands every time. I have my own designer pieces of course, but they don’t occupy big part of my closet, because of the prices 😦 Therefore, I can only do my designer shopping if I see a good bargain like 50 percent discount or beyond. Since it is an ‘outlet mall’, I was expecting more reductions than what I found there. Overall I can say there is 20 to 40 percent discount on high-fashion brands, and for me this is not enough to call a mall ‘outlet’ and to spend one whole day to go out of town to do my shopping there. I think, you can catch these kind of reductions in down-town shops of these brands also, at some certain times.
Here you can see an example of a nice Valentino bag. 2014 season price is 990 euros, now reduced to 590. So the reduction is around 40 percent.
But when you go to the middle-class brands, you will see more reductions like Apostrophe or Ralph Lauren (my very favorite 🙂 )
After the exit of ‘The Vallee’ there is another shopping center, with casual brands and season prices. You can have your shopping break there, since there are many restaurants and cafes. If you have children in your tour group, there is an aquarium also. Of course, no need to say that this shopping center is a stone’s throw distance from Disneyland Park.
What makes me surprised there, it was my first time seeing a ‘nail polish-matic’. 6 euros each, nail colors of every shade is ready for your use any time you want. If you are like me, remembering nail polish just before leaving home, therefore getting out with still wet and after damaged nail polish, this is a brilliant service for us 😉
And let’s talk about how you can get there. If you are already in Paris you can take the special shuttle, check the details from the site of La Vallee. But besides that by RER trains, which is connected to city’s main metro network, it is very easy to reach there. You need to take the RER line A, direction to Marne-la-Vallee (Parc Disneyland) and get off at the Val d’Europe station.
If you want to visit Disneyland, or have a quiet day without rushing to the Paris center after a tiring shopping day, there are many nice hotels around. (and not very expensive, comparing to Paris center)
In conclusion, if you have a huge budget for designer brand shopping, not searching for big discounts in a ‘real outlet mall sense’ or if you don’t have limited days to visit Paris, you can pay a visit here just to check what is going on. But if you want to be in Paris during all your vacation, there is no need to spend your whole day to come here, since there are many better shopping opportunities in Paris, without leaving the center. And for better outlet deals in Europe, stay tuned because in my next post I will introduce my favorite outlet mall 😉
exquis moi 