Last week, my good friend , stylist Art Conn, invited me to come along and take a peek at the latest "Designer Collaboration" between H & M and Comme Des Garcons. Of course, I had to come along and check it out. I loved the Victor & Rolf for H & M line they did several seasons back (and bought their tuxedo jacket and pants as well as various dress shirts) so I was curious to see what the famed Japanese Design House had cooked up.The Guest List:
Polka Dot Heaven: My friends show off the H & M Comme De Garcons Men's LineOnce there, at the Sunset Blvd. offices of H & M, I was joined by Art, as well as my other friends, including Johnny Lopez, a wonderful writer for TMZ, as well as fellow US Weekly Fashion Police Commentator. I also ran into E! Daily Ten/ Style Commentator, the beautiful Amanda Luttrell Garrigus (who is like 7 Months pregnant and looking fabulous) as well as Costume Designer and Stylist Extraordinaire, Arianne Phillips. We dished on the current Project Runway Season (Arianne is a BIG FAN!!!), and nibbled on hors d'oeuvres. I also noticed some other stylists and "LA Fashionistas"(I use the term LOOSELY) , but they were giving me dirty looks and staring at me as if I was an alien from Project Runway "Outer Space", so I won't discuss who they were...
The Collection:
I am not the typical Comme Des Garcons customer (that's best suited for the Gallery Owner/Sundance Festival obscure French Actor) but was surprised at how many pieces I liked from the line. The women's stuff was great. There was a black fully lined fitted "Edwardian Coat" (see above) that our H & M "Greeter" wore, which had a lot of detail and ruffle accents, but somehow it worked. It was less than $300!!! Yes, for H & M that might be pricey but let me tell you, if I tried to make that jacket, my seamstress would have charged me $200 just to sew it! Of course, it was made in China (I checked).One of my favorite pieces from the women's line were the "Hammer Pants" (I call them that!), they were more like Harem Pants (which are BIG for Spring 2009 Ladies!!!). If I was a size 4, and 5' 11" , and a GIRL, I would work those OVERTIME!!!!
As for the Men's H & M Comme Des Garcons collection, my friends and I did like several of the pieces, including a black rumpled Pea Coat, a trench coat (I am buying that when it comes out!), and most of the colored dress shirts. We especially LOVED a blue striped asymmetrically button dress shirt. We were feeling adventuresome and went ahead and began to try some of the items on---just to see how they would look. We were basically the only ones doing this. We even voiced our opinion about how "H & M sizes run rather small" and how there was no way that WE--my friends and I---could even possibly fit into there extra small sample sizes.Well, the following day, one of my friends that was with me at the Preview, sent me an article that came out on Racked Los Angeles about the H & M Event, and there was a line at the end of the article that seemed to be referring to us...
The quote was: "We did watch a couple guys try on jackets and heard some "runs small" murmurs from the non-skinny-skinnies..."
Yep, that was us---Next time, we should use our "Quiet Voice" Ladies....