A Terrifying Look at the Craziness That Went Down Yesterday at H&M Stores All Over the World
That was quick.
The furor started immediately after H&M announced back in May that it would be launching a designer collaboration with Balmain. Bit by bit, nuggets of information would leak out—a campaign video here, a Balmain-clad red carpet army there—and people freaked out. But that was nothing compared to the madness that took place worldwide yesterday.
People started lining up early. Like, 5am-the-morning-before-early in Philly. The site crashed almost as soon as the collection launched at 8am EST yesterday. The H&M app didn’t fare much better. Those who finally managed to browse the site found that nearly everything, save for a few $25 bandeaus, was sold out.
In New York, crowds stripped the store bare. In Miami, fights broke out in line. In Istanbul, there was a stampede:
In Dubai, people crawled beneath the door to get in:
But France was perhaps the craziest scene, with shoppers screaming, stampeding and grabbing everything in sight:
Grown women engaged in a literal tug-of-war with a sweater:
Now, people are sad/angry with Balmain designer Olivier Rousteing (not his fault, BTW), and they’re expressing it by commenting on his Instagram page:
LAST NIGHT WAS EPIC ❤️ #paris #thankU @hm @balmainparis #areyouready? #HMBALMAINATION #itsOUT #jointheNation #itsfashionBaby #walkforme #tomorrow A photo posted by OLIVIER R. (@olivier_rousteing) on
The scene wasn’t much different in Philly, with shoppers who didn’t get in line early arriving to find bare racks. (The beaded stuff and menswear apparently went first.) Didn’t score a piece? Don’t worry. Head to eBay, where vultures have already posted their hauls for insane prices. Sigh.
