The Other Line Moves Faster

Downtown felt a bit like a carnival yesterday because the new H&M opened up.  It's been broadly described as the Ikea of clothing stores, and that's pretty apt.  They're both Swedish.  They sell modern products at a low price point.  And there's a lot of bargain material choices like press board and acrylic fiber.  The only real difference is that at H&M, you don't have to assemble the clothing yourself.  Then it would just be a 25,000 square foot fabric store.  Actually, now that I think about it, that's not such a bad idea.

 Much like Forever 21, I don't really have much use for H&M other than the accessories, but there's always something a little thrilling about people sleeping out on the sidewalk just so they can have a shot at winning a $300 gift card and getting a free t-shirt.  The store opened at noon today, and I heard that the first person staked out their place in line at around 3 p.m. the previous afternoon.  When I walked by at 5:30 p.m. yesterday, there was a group of about a half dozen future shoppers in sleeping bags and camp chairs and two tents full of people shivering on the pavement.  By the time the store opened, the line went all the way around one block and over to the next one, and about 800 people charged the doors when they opened.  Okay, maybe not charged so much as entered in a fairly orderly fashion before ransacking the displays. 

 

I took a quick trip round the three floors before I met Mr. flyskim for dinner, and I can report that it's exactly the same store I remember from London, Edinburgh and San Francisco.  The restocking that must be going on is amazing because the racks and displays, while a little tossed about, were still full to the brim with a complete range of sizes as of 6 p.m.  Can't help but admire the planning that went into that.

And of course I brought my camera to document the non-carnage.  I guest with more than 2000 stores world-wide, H&M has this down to a science.  Not like when the Macy's opened three years ago, and they had to close down the streets because no one thought of a line and the mob just charged the doors when they opened (as an actual eye witness, I can report that this was pretty amusing and just a little scary).

 

I'm still plugging away at Lady Gray.  Both the fronts are now pad stitched, and I've interfaced the back and side back pieces.  I've also started my Thanksgiving dress, Simplicity 2588.

I actually already own a sleeveless ready-to-wear version of this dress (full-skirted view), but now I'm making it in a more fall-like fabric with sleeves.  I want to have this done before the end of next week because I need to decide whether or not I need to get new shoes.  The bodice is done, so just have the skirt left.  If I'm really on task, I'm going to make a black, lace-trimmed petticoat for underneath like this one from Anthropologie.

Gertie has a great tutorial on how to put together a crinoline without a pattern, and I think I'd get a little charge out of having a lacy layer peeking out from underneath my skirt.