Shop Until You Drop: Marni For H&M

We had a spring weather preview yesterday here in NYC, with temperatures nearing the 70s. I am not one to take out my flip-flops at the first sunray but wow, was it hot yesterday. After spending the morning shopping (more on this later) in the fleece, Chalet boots and Elements coat that I had stupidely put on for school dropoff, I needed a shower and a complete change of clothes. I was dying to wear the rugby stripe dress that I bought during the last promo but I couldn't bear the tought of wearing tights so I went barelegs and it was perfect. My legs are still slightly tanned from my trip to Miami, so it wasn't that shocking to show them off and I received tons of compliments on the dress. I wore it with a navy belt that I bought before Xmas (I was looking through my tickets earlier and found out that it's called "Aubrey leather belt" in case you are interested), so it is a bit shorter than what it looks like without the belt (I wore my Marjorie ballet flats, not pictured, with it). I am wearing a XS (I could have gone down a size but this dress is more fitted in the top area than in the bottom and I have boobs):

Please note the sunglasses: these are my trophy for partaking in the Marni for H&M launch crazyness. As you probably know, the highly anticipated collaboration between the italian designer Marni and H&M debuted yesterday and I was determined to get something from the Collection. Not only I love Marni but I think that it is a particularly well-suited collaboration because she often works with cotton and other materials that H&M can provide without losing too much in quality. I teamed up with a fiend and while she went to the 86th St. store (where the women's collection was sold out by 10 since they had a little stock), I went to the 5th Avenue flagship where I was given a wristband with my "time slot" to shop. It was only 9.45 and my time slot was 12.45. What to do, what to do. Because I couldn't go back home I walked to the 34th St. store where things were a little bit less crazy. They had stopped giving away wristbands and I was told that they would let people without a wristband go in at 11. I had a book with me so I patiently waited in the line and I got in pretty quickly. Once in, you only had 15 minutes to shop. Of course it was complete chaos but at that time there was still abundance of stock and sizes. I grabbed the sunglasses without looking at the price and a few other things to try on. In the end I refrained myself from buying things that I knew I wouldn't wear just because I was there and only got the polka-dots jacket and the sunglasses for me and a few things for my friend to try on, including the item that to me was the most Marni-esque of the entire collection, a navy wrap dress in a techno material (in fact she kept that one). I really wanted one of the flower necklaces that I had seen in the window display but they were gone by the time I went there. I would have happily bought a colorblocked silk shift dress that I spied when I was waiting in the line but they didn't have my size anymore when I got in (there was only one left).I tried a similar shift dress in a size 6 but it was huge and I didn't like the colors that much.

When I arrived at the register and the cashier scanned the sunglasses, I couldn't believe my eyes: they were only $19.99 and they are VERY GOOD quality (plus I was in the market for a new pair and I was looking exactly for that shape). Had I known I would have bought another pair for my friend (we were allowed to buy two items for each style). They have a tortoiseshell ivory trim on the inside, that you can't see in the pic:

At that point I decided that I would give 5th Avenue a try, since I still had my wristband. I arrived there 5 minutes before my time slot and I was almost immediately let in. I was shocked to see that there was NOTHING left on the women's side, literally no more that 5 or 6 items in random sizes. Now, had I waited all the morning until my time slot without going to the other store I would have been VERY upset. They should have calculate better the ratio stock/clients. Anyway, of couse there were no sunglasses and no necklaces left.

This is the other item that I got. The fit of this little jacket is amazing but it is quite scratchy and unlined and I really don't need another jacket like this so I think I am going to return it (it was $79.50, so quite expensive for H&M). I am trying it with the Minnies but it would look terrific as a topper on a simple little black shift:

Anybody else partook in the Marni for H&M crazyness?