H&M X Balmain Collaboration

Last Thursday, the morning of bonfire night the H&M X Balmain collaboration made its debut and boy were there fireworks! We had been waiting on tender hooks for this day since the collaboration was first announced in May, and it seems everyone and their Grandma has gone crazy for it. The Parisian label Balmain, worn by the likes of the Kardashians, Kylie and Kendall Jenner and models Gigi Hadid and Jourdan Dunn has flourished over recent years. The fashion house's strong links with celebrity statuses have really influenced its growth and popularity. Creative Director of Balmain, 29 year old Olivier Rousteing is a big user of social media sites including Twitter and Instagram and has  used this to his advantage throughout this campaign. The hashtag '#HMBALMAINATION' was used to promote the collection across both Twitter and Instagram with a host of celebrities using this hashtag on their Instagram posts during the run up to the release, including Jourdan Dunn (1.4 million followers), Kendall Jenner (40.9 million followers) and of course the man himself, Olivier Rousteing (1.7 million followers). This huge social media backing and the fashion house's association with big names, particularly stars of the campaign, Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid, who's joint Instagram following equates just under 50 million, were what I  believed triggered the chaos we saw within H&M stores across the globe, from New York to Paris and London to Italy. 

There was, shoving, snatching and scuffling
across H&M stores on Thursday, with those of the 'Balmain Army' queuing for up to 3 days in certain parts of the world to try and get their hands on some of this affordable designer gear. London's Regent Street store even saw queues wrapping around the building. Olivier Rousteing has always connected with fans through social media, and this campaign was no different, it was built up over a series of months which is why I feel that this collection whipped up such a frenzy. However due to a large amount of customers left feeling disappointed to not have nabbed an item of the collection, social media is where they flocked to express their feelings. Many took to Rousteing's accounts tweeting and commenting their anger regarding the issue. Some moaned of their disappointment due to the lack of stock, others lashed out about how they felt it was unfair that many people were buying as much as they could get hold of, just to sell on eBay at an expanded price and others complained about the breakdown of the website. I understand that this has been a long awaited collection for many, however I do think that many of these issues that people have chosen to raise with Oliver Rousteing through his social media accounts are actually out of his control. For example he does not run the website or have any say in what people do with the garments once they have purchased them, so I think its rather unfair that he is being personally targeted and blamed for certain problems which occurred during the debut of the collaboration.

The collection flew in and out of H&M stores worldwide within hours and in some cases even minuites and the website crashed almost straight away, when consumers flocked to their laptops for the release at 8am. For many disappointed shoppers when the website issue was resolved and they were redirected to the page practically all products were sold out. These complications meant that there was an accumulation of irate customers who didn't manage to purchase anything from the collection. For those who have missed out, theres still the chance to grab some of the H&M X Balmain goods.. at a price. Lucky shoppers began listing the products they had managed to salvage from the riots almost immediately on eBay, and they're not cheap. Some sellers have even been asking for 4 times what they initially paid for the garment. Not only did shoppers of the regent street store take to the internet to sell goods for an inflated price, but alledagldy also the streets! People were seen handing over cash for the goods they wanted from this extraordinarily popular collaboration.


I think that there were flaws within this collaboration, the marketing and promotional side of it was far too strong and effective, particularly the social media aspect to handle the lack of stock and strength of the website. Those who took to their laptops to grab the must have buys were met with a page on H&M's website stating 'We have a lot of visitors on the site right now. This is due to the high level of interest in our latest collection'. Many shoppers who visited stores for the debut of the collection were left feeling disappointed not to have managed a purchase, even some who queued for hours on end. Not only do I believe that extra precautions and planning should have taken place to prevent the website from crashing but also that the company could have been better prepared for the amount of stock they would require in stores to avoid letting customers down. Many shoppers took to the streets and internet to sell the garments at a marked up price. H&M cannot directly dissolve this problem as it is obviously the buyers choice what they do with their purchases, however if stock wasn't so limited this problem would be helped as less people would have to buy off of eBay in the first place as they would have been able to purchase the goods from the store instead. This would benefit both H&M and Balmain as it would be the companies making the profit rather than those who mark the prices up on eBay. I think that H&M underestimated what the demand and reaction to this collection would be. Really the company only had to see how much of a following the collaboration had on social media sites, the promo video, posts and tweets and take into consideration the large amount of celebrities that had been seen wearing and promoting the garments. This way I feel they could have been much more prepared. I see the problem H&M are faced with, there is a fine line between pleasing customers through making the stock widely available and ensuring that the collection doesn't lose its exclusivity through mass production. However when the garments are being sold on eBay for incredibly marked up prices, I think the fun of the collaboration is taken away because the whole point behind it is that designer products are made affordable, otherwise we would just buy straight from Balmain surely? Disgruntled customers are not good news for H&M. The company tends to collaborate with designer brands on an annual basis, in the past they have joint forces with the likes of  karl Lagerfield, Alexander Wang and Jimmy Choo, however this particular collaboration has been the most popular and chaotic collaboration to date. Consumers will soon become disinterested in the collaborations if they seem to just cause mayhem and chaos, meaning future collaborations could prove to be less successful.


Head over to Ebay if you're still desperate to own something from the collection however, be prepared to pay the big bucks as prices now are more alike to that we see on Balmains price tags to what we see on H&M's. I mentioned the promo video for H&M X Balmain collection which I really liked so I have left the link below for those who aren't one of Kendall Jenners 40.9 million followers who may have missed it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9o96N0AowM

Love, Isabella x

Photo Credits: Google images, Marie Claire.co.uk