Bawling for BALMAIN x H&M — as told by a sleep deprived student
I arrive at Yorkdale Mall at 6:00am on Thursday November 5th — 4 hours before the shopping centre opens, and 2 before H&M will, on this special day — the release of this year’s highly anticipated designer collaboration with Balmain Paris. I walk past the red glowing letters hanging high above H&M’s glistening display window, filled with mannequins doned in luxe clothing: the same black beaded blazer Kendall Jenner wore to the Billboard Music Awards, a black and white sequined dress Gigi Hadid dawned during New York Fashion week, and a sparking green number that Joan Smalls modelled down the runway for the line’s launch in New York a few weeks ago. Months after its first reveal, Balmain for H&M is finally here.
Balmain’s creative director Olivier Rousteing has been teasing audiences with peeks at the capsule collection for months since its debut on the BMA red carpet on May 17th 2015, with Jenner, Dunn and Rousteing himself sporting pieces from the line. Balmain’s stature as a couture atelier is more than enough to sustain itself as a viable business partner for H&M, but it’s the brand’s position with celebrity culture that makes it all the more desirable for H&M’s targeted demographic of young buyers.
For example, Rousteing considers the Kardashian clan an extension of his own family, not only dressing the megastars for red carpet events, launches and parties, but also featuring them in a range of advertising campaigns — such as Kim and Kanye for his Spring/Summer 2015 collection, or Kendall and Kylie Jenner alongside fellow famous siblings, Gigi and Bella Hadid as well as Joan & Erika Smalls in his Fall/Winter 2015 advert. Rousteing’s momentum only builds as he dresses pop superstar Justin Bieber during the height of his comeback for the 2015 Met Gala, creating the ultimate wave of media attention and brand recognition — all of the momentum one needs to bring mayhem, and success, to a new clothing line.
I step past the 30 or so people in front of the store, predominantly young Asian men and women. “Where does the line end?” I ask a girl. She looks up at me, blank-faced. “No English,” she says in a thick accent, putting her face back down to her bright pink iPhone. The girl next to her overhears me, and gestures towards the mall exit, “Outside,” she says.
I step into the dark. The sun has not yet risen in Toronto, but hundreds of bodies have, all lined up along the mall’s exterior in anticipation of the store’s opening. An inflatable mattress lies up against the cement wall. Though people have not been in line for days like in other parts of the world, loyal Balmain lovers have not taken any chances to miss the launch of the collection.
I tap a woman within the first 50 in line on the shoulder. “What time did you get here?” I ask.
“3am,” she replies, “Well, my mom did, but she left for work so I tapped in. This better be worth it.”
After a couple hundred people chatting animatedly with friends, staring at phone screens, or sitting in lawn chairs sipping travellers of coffee, I find myself at the end of the line. Two girls in front of me sit on the ledge of Chapters’ storefront window, thumbing through Instagram feeds. I soon learn that they’re names are Emily and Michelle; both high school seniors from Bolton, Ontario, who drove to Toronto at 5:00 this morning just for the release of the collection.
“Yeah we’re missing school today,” admits Emily, “But I don’t care. This is once in a lifetime, you know. I love the collection, it’s so worth it.”
Michelle nods in agreement, “Like I know the dresses are short but I would even wear one to prom, I don’t care.” That is, if they get to the dresses at all.
H&M representatives are heavy handedly going down the line of people, snapping wristbands on to buyers, and reciting their lines.
“There are only 1000 units of merch. There’s no guarantee you’ll get a piece. We don’t say it to discourage you, we just want to let you know,” says a handsome young manager, his headset off kilter as he rips a wristband from the sheet.
He wears a custom H&M x Balmain staff t-shirt: the gold font against the black cotton winks at me, as if a preview of the glamour that’s still hours away.
The hours do pass, though slowly, on one of the more bitter November days we’ve seen this fall. The sun rises over the city, as the line begins to drip into the mall like a leaky faucet, person by person by person.
“It’s ridiculous that all of these people are lined up just to get a chance to buy something,” exclaims a man from behind me, “It’s consumerism and capitalism together as one. And great fucking marketing. The poor man’s couture.”
I can’t help but smirk. As low brow as this collection may be for those accustomed to couture creations priced at thousands of dollars - the line is not cheap by H&M’s standards. The cheapest piece in the collection is priced higher than some mainline H&M tops at $19.99, (a faux gold ring) and the most expensive (a dress worn by Hadid during fashion week) at a staggering $699. One would think that in designing for a fast fashion brand known for its affordability, the price points would be more reasonable or standardized. After all, people only pay what they think the item is worth.
There is an item limit for shoppers — a maximum of 2 of each piece in no more than 2 different sizes — a limit created to keep some stock on the racks as the hundreds of shoppers sift through the store and out the door.
Though I still stand in line, handfuls of shoppers leave the mall, toting multiple, large black bags, bordered & embossed with gold trim and letters like the staff t-shirts: BALMAIN PARIS — H&M scrawled on them, in the gorgeous Balmain type-face.
One man rips black tissue paper out of his shopping bag, and throws on the line’s olive-green knee length military style jacket. He flips his sunglasses onto the bridge of his nose, before he unlocks his Mercedes G-Wagon, chirping from the parking lot.
“Oh my God, look at this! This is in Paris!” Michelle exclaims, pulling up a video on her phone. A mob pierces through the doors of H&M, swarming racks and swiping pieces — a contrast to the 30 people in 30 people out system in place here at Yorkdale, though we experience a different kind of crazy.
Handsome manager is back. He addresses our chunk of the line.
“I just wanted to let you know, menswear is completely sold out, and women’s is down to 50 pieces and decreasing. If you have somewhere else to be, I would suggest going there. The odds of you getting a piece are very slim. I’d say, at this point, you will not get a piece at all. I don’t want you wasting your time.”
A ring of shoppers forms in the parking lot, black bags lining the ground. Men hold up pieces, the statement Balmain t-shirts and tailoring jackets, and begin auctioning them aloud. “Let’s start the bidding at $100!” shouts one man. $100 is nearly triple the selling point of the t-shirt. A t-shirt I may or may not ever get to touch, due to the buying frenzy. It is in that moment I see a women leave the mall with 5 bags on each arm, a woman trailing her the same amount, and a younger boy with 4 in tow, all strutting to the same vehicle.
It won’t be until 12 o’clock that Emily and Michelle defeatedly drive back to Bolton, and I rush the store with the remaining scavengers to fumble for one of the 20-something remaining pieces. It’s a choice between a black or white bandeau, one of the more outrageously priced pieces for what it is — $29.99 for a strip of fabric with a gold zip at the back and a Balmain label. But I swipe my credit card, regardless.
Balmain has done what they have set to do — market their brand to a widespread audience, and sell it to the best of its ability. To quote Balmain’s CEO, Emmanuel Diemoz, “ [Olivier] is feeding the market.” And the market, apparently, is starving.
The collection sells out instantaneously world wide, crashing websites, leaving many fans disgruntled, disoriented, and dissing Rousteing himself.
“This is a joke. Why create a line when you don’t have enough stock to sell? It’s just small scaled elitism,” complains the shopper in front of me, exiting the store, empty handed.
I’m one of the last to leave H&M, with an exclusive black BALMAIN bag — and a matching set hanging under my eyes.
