What a million could buy you at H and M

I was first introduced to H&M when it was still Hannes and Mauritz, I was in Stockholm and room service was late with the laundry so I needed something fast to get on with the day - and upon the suggestion of a Swedish friend I landed there. Even till now, H&M prides itself at giving very cost-efficient fashion, This is the 10th year H&M is doing collaborations (the press would never admit it but some of them were more successful than others - here's how Versace looked like, Marni, and sadly this is the marketing analysis of the missed opportunity that Margiela was).

Interestingly, H&M gets influenced heavily by the designers they collaborate with - in parallel to last year's Isabel Marant capsule collection, they launched their own Navajo prints and marl scarvess, Versace saw them doing a lot of baroque prints for their own collections, dresses similar to glittery Marni made its way to the official collection and so on and so forth. So it's really not a surprise that, with Alexander Wang (now at at the creative helm of his own brand and that of Balanciaga) being the guest designer - we see knock offs of his work galore in this year's H&M collections.

What is very surprising however at how high the price points are for the Wang collaboration, at such prices one can buy T by Alexander Wang items or even mainline items during sales. How high the price? The jacket above costs 999,000 LBP (OK that's 1,000 LBP less than the million the title of this post suggested) or 666 USD. It is described as "Down jacket in windproof, reflective functional fabric with a detachable, padded hood with a magnetic fastener, a taped zip at the front, side pockets with a taped, concealed zip, ventilating mesh sections with a zip under the arms, and ribbed cuffs. Lined. Filling 90% down, 10% feathers."

In other places however, it was reported (about that same jacket): "Models wearing the new line were milling around and posing for photos. Hanne Gaby Odiele, a Belgian model who lives in New York City, was sporting an incredibly puffy and shiny silver parka. “This jacket is heaven,” she said. “Inside, it’s like you’re surrounded by a cloud. It’s really warm.”"

So basically, you are paying AT H&M 666 USD for a "cloud". I hope, unlike the iCloud, there is no leakage there.

Under other circumstances, a million could get you the whole bargain area when steep discounts are offered.