H&M Pre-Opening Party

I had the opportunity to check out the pre-opening party at the H&M Flagship Store at the Core on Wednesday night. I'm very excited to finally have one in Calgary so that I can get my hands on some of their designer collaborations without the assistance of an airplane!

I had a very lucky(ish) experience in San Francisco the day the Lanvin collaboration was released. I was following all the online promotion about the collection but I didn't actually pay attention to the release date or the fact that I'd be in a city where it would be available. By coincidence we rode by it on the trolley but didn't stop because I had assumed it would have sold out (bad mistake).

 

Shot of the  San Francisco H&M flagship store from the trolley

I had a gut feeling that I should go back at least to look at the displays, and unfortunately San Francisco weather decided to treat us with a torrential downpour. It took me the whole afternoon to get back to store after torrential rain got us stuck on the trolley + almost in two accidents (one involving a car driving the wrong way up a hill as we were going down). I finally did make it back, soaking wet, to find one dress I liked left in my size. Here's a picture of me wearing the dress at PARKSHOW Spring 2011:

Picture by Christine Bassit of Calgary Fashion

Back to Calgary! I had a great time shopping with plenty of familiar faces from the industry. Kind of a weird experience. I'd run into someone, we'd compare potential purchases, grab a drink, and continue shopping... very surreal! Ran into Jennie Lyle (a local stylist that helped with our PARK4JAPAN campaign) who had picked out these really great camel colored pants (definitely snagged a pair for myself!):

Also ran into a bunch of people from Sophia Models (Bill, Ania & Spencer), Alberta Fashion Week, Fabricated and Calgary Fashion. The funniest encounter of the night was with Maria, Linda and I. We were separately shopping, turned around, and realized we were all wearing close to the same shade of red pants:

 Quick shot taken on Maria's Phone

I lone wolfed it for the rest of the night, debating which items to take home. Here's some pictures of my favorite picks and some shots of the store:

H&M is now open to the public! If you're interested go and check it out on the third floor of the Holt Renfrew Building in the Core Downtown Shopping Centre.

-Kara