Fashion Panache

Written by Bhushavali

Chennai's Fashionistas got a brand new place to hang out now and that's H&M. Yes, the Swedish Fashion retailer, H&M has finally opened its doors in Chennai at Express Avenue Mall.

The launch was a highly anticipated event, with the announcement that the 1st 3 people who would get gift vouchers worth Rs.10000, Rs.7000 & Rs.5000 respectively and the first 500 to queue up would get gift vouchers worth Rs.500. The crowd was the most I've seen so far in Chennai for any contemporary fashion brand launch. I've seen much much worse crowds for store launches that sell ethnic clothing as well as local brands. But when international brands open their store here, obviously it serves a very niche clientele. So, this crowd that I witnessed here, a niche crowd, was definitely the highest of its kind. The shops here in the mall open at 11am, but the crowd started pouring in from early morning.

The employees were one extremely enthusiastic bunch! There was also a cake to mark the occassion. They performed something like a flash mob though it can't be exactly called a flash mob in the last few minutes before the store opened to the public.

The current collection looks pretty much Autumn Winter with knits, sweaters, woolens, furs, bomber jackets etc. Also the prints look really warm catering the Autumn style.

The lingerie section looks exquisite with tons and tons of options for women. The jewelry section is also drool worthy. Here are my fav pieces from there.

I expected the price to be sky rocketing (I hadn't checked their prices in India at all before venturing to the store, though I've been to their London stores). To my surprise the prices were very nominal in par with the market prices with women's wear beginning at Rs.399, jewelry beginning at Rs.250.

And what did the Chennai Fashionistas feel about the collection. Here's the first look reaction from few of the first 500 customers who visited the store on the first day!!!

One sad fact is that since this store opened after the Kenzo x H&M launch, it cannot be brought in here. Chennai-ites have to wait till the next year for the next designer collab to be launched. For Kenzo, we have no option than to go to Bangalore!
And what I wear for the event? That's coming up in another post. Wait & watch...

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Written by Bhushavali