A thick fog blanketed the rainy city of Atlanta while hundreds waited for hours outside. People grew irritable and impatient by the second. Suddenly, swarms of people were disorderly, shouting, and shoving to get the front. A bright light pierced the dull sky as the doors slowly opened. Now people were frantic, trying to get what they wanted by any means necessary. Was this the beginning of a nuclear apocalypse? Was our impending doom finally drawing near? No, the Balmain X HM collection had finally been released.
Maybe the shoppers were not all crazy and were trying to fight to the finish for limited pieces. However, the entire event was stressful for anyone involved, whether they were shopping or working at the store. Chinelo Okona shared her personal story of survival from her near death experience (okay, not really) with the couture collaboration.
She recalls the doors opening at 8 a.m. and the line to get in the store started to form around 6 a.m. in order to enter the store, shoppers had to receive a wristband. Colored bands were given out by groups of thirty. When the store opened, each group was only given 15 minutes to shop the collection. Sale associates were given 5 minutes to clean up and put back in order pieces that were either reject at the dressing room or register.
The first two groups of people that shopped bought majority of the collection and only left loose threads and sequins behind. Chinelo was luckily in the third group so she able to able to grab a black, double-breasted blazer. Shoppers were then limited to only two garments per style. After her group had their time to rummage through the last of the pieces, everything was nearly gone.
A manager at the Atlantic Station location said approximately 800 people showed up on Thursday morning. This location received 750 pieces for distribution. The store generated $91,000 from the Balmain X HM collection and was completely sold out within an hour.
A few complaints about the otherwise immaculate collection was that the sizes run small and all of the pieces were not offered in Atlanta, such as the beaded blazer Kylie Jenner has been spotted rocking in ads.
People going ballistic over Balmain was not only occurring in Atlanta. H&M stores all over the world were experiencing scenes parallel to a gladiator battle as people charged the stores to grab anything that was a part of the limited selection.Stores everywhere are now sold out of the collection but, can be found resold online at sites such as Ebay for an obscene amount of money.Olivier Rousteing is most likely on a private island with Supermodels laughing at us mere mortals who scrambled to get anything from his newest collection. The numbers in Atlanta alone show that the collaboration was a huge success.
Now that the dust has settled, the healing can begin. My heart goes out to the devoted fashionistas and fashionistos who were not able to get any Balmain online or in stores. Don’t worry, your #Balmainnation dreams may be totally crushed but you will live to see another collection. Maybe next time people will prepare guerilla warfare tactics in order to posses the next collaboration line H&M will bless us with in stores.