Global Lust By Chrissy Iley
I am not yet recovered from Maison Martin Margiela madness. It’s probably a different madness to the experience on Regent Street where I hear people queued overnight without even a Starbucks to keep them warm. I heard about a multi-coloured wristband system of women kept in a holding pen while they watched others rampage the rails for ten-minutes, allowed only one item with various restrictions on what they could buy.
I rocked up mid-morning at H&M on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood and found I could take my pick of cashmere jumpers, duvet coats, and giant furs which hung like a small beach hut from the white wooden Margiela hangers. I saw the hangers themselves were on eBay, a rarefied item – well not in LA.
The collection is an incredible mixture of crazy/desirable/wearable. The shows with perspex heels bizarrely comfortable. The cut and fabric of most of the jackets beyond flattering. The leather handbags and holdalls and sneakers all beautiful quality.
The car seat dress with its strange ruched backlessness was a bit of a puzzle to me. Not as much however as some of the other dresses that had huge volumes of fabric hanging from odd places. It took me a while to work out where your head actually went so I’m not sure how those dresses would have done with women trapped in a ten-minute shopping window.
I was faced with the curious dilemma between the various LA branches of H&M. I could have my pick of anything I wanted. The assistant said that the collection was not selling as well as H&M’s other collections because Margiela isn’t as well known as say Lanvin or Versace. But more than that he was doing well on the East Coast because the East Coast likes to dress for the cold.
With the lovely man’s Fair Isle jumper being so thick and chunky that it would fill a Mini Cooper without the person driving it, it’s no surprise it wasn’t a best seller in the California sun.
I found it hugely frustrating when I went to H&M’s Matthew Williamson collection and had to practically stab somebody for a leather jacket. And that was all I managed to get. But somehow it’s equally frustrating when I could buy everything. Just don’t know what to choose.