My first buys from H&M Australia's first store

If you've read my previous post, you'll know that I was one of those people that lined up at an unearthly hour for the H&M Australia launch to ensure I was one of the first ones in. In this post, I shall share with you what was inside that shopping bag of mine. Without further ado, I present to you my first purchases from H&M Melbourne....

Clockwise- Necklace: $12.95, Black Shirt Dress: $59.95, Bracelet: $6.95, Jade Green Ballet Flats: $12.95, Black Tunic: $39.95, Pale Pink Off-Shoulder Top: $19.95, Black Ballet Flats: $12.95.

Below are photos off the tops & dresses I bought, to give you a clearer idea.

The pink top is the one Miranda Kerr wore in their launch campaign

The Black top/tunic on the far right of my photo is the tunic from the "Australia Exclusive Collection" as seen here

And the Black shirt dress on the top of my photo is a long, maxi dress with a button-up front from the waist up and from the waist down there's a long slit, so this will have to be worn with pants or a skirt. This photo does't do justice to it, but this is my favourite of all the things I bought. Will have to do an outfit post soon to show how this moves.

I don't know if they're still doing this, but on the day of the launch, they were giving away a free t-shirt at the exit when you showed your receipt. 

Successful shopping trip, I say. Can't wait to go back (once the frenzy dies down)!

The H&M Australia Opening

I had been waiting for this day for so so long! So, of course I was going to be one of the ones lining up outside H&M's first Australian store at a crazy hour. I always said I would line-up for H&M's opening, so I did. I keep my word. I will let the pictures speak for themselves and not say much else...

The queue as at 5.45am! Yes, I was one of those people.

Freebies to keep us occupied, alert and looking our best in the wee hours of the morning

Free nail colour courtesy of L'oreal Paris

Goodie Bag for the first few 100 customers of H&M Australia

Finally! The doors open!

So true! We definitely didn't sleep for the sake of fashion that night!

Yay! My first purchase from H&M Melbourne

 Coming soon: What's inside the bag...

H&M Announcement

It was like all my Birthdays, Christmases, Summer Holidays had all come at once! (Dramatic much!) No, really! I literally shrieked when I woke up and was scrolling through facebook on my phone with one eye open (that's kinda become the first thing I do when I wake up. Bad! I know) and saw H&M had made this announcement late on Thursday night:

This is the reason why I had been following H&M on Facebook in the first place. I had a feeling if they were ever coming here they would send out feelers on The Book (and Twitter). 

Why am I so excited? Because H&M is the ultimate culmination of Fashion+sans fortune. They have the trendiest clothes at very very very affordable prices. And no this doesn't mean that they are "cheap quality" - I have a cute work top that I bought from H&M in Dubai around 4 years ago - still going strong. Not even one button has fallen or even threatened to fall. And this is just one of 5 things I bought on that trip - all of which are still intact.

And they always seem to have what I want that no one else has, so their buyers and designers seem to be very on the ball, in fact ahead of the ball. What you see at H&M, you see at other High Street stores 2 seasons later. And they have the strength of numbers and a world class supply chain system (really their supply chain was what we wrote our essays about when I was at Uni) which helps them keep prices low. For example, that dress in the photo above is US$19.95 from their "Conscious Colletcion" which is all about sustainable fashion. Where on the Australian High Street would you find a dress like that at that price - let alone sustainably produced!

So, to sum it up - I am a fan.

Here's a taste of what H&M is like, if you didn't already know...

H&M's Summer Brand Ambassador

Also from the Conscious Collection

H&M for Men

H&M for Kids - Conscious Collection

*prices in US$. Photos courtesy H&M Facebook and hm.com

 Now I can't wait to find out where the first store will be and when in 2014! My money is on Melbourne CBD. Fingers & toes crossed!