Better late then never - thoughts on Maison Martin Margiela for H&M

Maison Martin Margiela for H&M upside-down bag

It might seems as I'm late to join the Martin Margiela for H&M ride, however my experience from a casual trip to H&M this morning helped to confirm my suspicions about this H&M collab.

When the collection was first announced it was hit with a wave of criticism that hasn't died down until now.  Maison Martin Margiela designs were something that for me always stood as a work of art rather than 'grab off the shelf' fashion so I was surprised but very much intrigued about this collaboration. I found it really hard to see how the designs will translate into high street items and when I discovered that collection would be based on re-issues of selected designs from various collections I found it even harder to see how H&M loving fashionistas (including me) will rock those Margiela designs.

When the lookbook for the collection surfaced online I initially had to stop and take a breath, they were fabulous there's no lie , but still deep in side I felt there is no way those garments picked by H&M were manufactured for me and my thoughts were confirmed on the launch day when I decided to walk into H&M on my walk from work thinking if I'm lucky I might be able to find a bracelet or a necklace that was left after the initial shopper's raid on the collection. To my surprise when I arrived and discovered that nearly all of the items were still there 10 hours after the store opened which only affirmed my initial suspicion that this collection might have been a bit of an extreme step for H&M. Still I decided to enjoy what's available and try on a couple of the garments although as I suspected they just weren't right for me and so I went back feeling slightly relieved and happy that yet again I managed to escape the H&M designer collaboration frenzy.

Fast forward to today, a week after the collection was launched, I went to H&M to get some basic items, when I got there and had a walk around I passed by giant piles of MMM items sitting abandoned on the shelves with giant 50% tags on each and every item, I was a bit surprised but not shocked after seeing the amount of items left just last week when the collection launched the experience confirmed my thoughts that some designs are a true work of art that not everyone will understand and it's sometimes better to stand on the side and look at those wonderful creations as works of art.

(Needless to say I did end up with the handbag pictured above which I really liked when I saw the lookbook but surprisingly it was one of the items that were sold out on the first day in my local store, so I guess someone had a bit of a change of mind and I was lucky I had another look around today as it is a really gorgeous, well made and interesting handbag which I would actually use).

And to end this, I will quote the lovely sales assistant that helped me fish this bag out of the piles 'I love those designs but when they landed in store I felt a bit left down knowing there won't be many buyers for this collection in our store'.