When Fishing For A Dress At H&M Becomes A War Mission

It all started with this: November 15…

Need I say more? If you are from Planet Fashion, I am guessing not, that won’t be necessary. But since we aren’t all ready-to-kill-for-a-sock fashionistas (shame on us, mere mortals), I’ll go a bit further. Just take it as an educating matter, girls!

So, as I was saying, it all started with the date November 15. That was the date set worldwide for the launch of great designer Martin Margiela’s H&M collection. And yes, ladies, Beirut was no different from any other big city in the world! So, there I was, at 8:00 am sharp(ish)… ABC Achrafieh really felt like a haunted house, with all lights off, but with courage, I started making my way up to H&M. Then, there was the noise… You know, that particular sound, so recognisable, created by agitation. My heart was pounding: was I excited, or scared? A bit of both, I confess. I have never been a social freak, and needless to say that adrenalin was running high. The noise soon gave way to the light, the colour, all the movement, the fuss, the chaos. I had entered the scene of the crime. Just a few square meters at the entrance of the store… that’s all there was, and yet, I had a rare spectacle before my eyes. I forgot all about the collection of genius Martin, as I became hypnotised with the crowd of real fashionistas (dear god of Fashion, forgive me for I haven’t been that devoted to you). It was all hands everywhere, grabbing whatever was reachable – or whatever was left over, I should say. I checked the time – “it’s only 08:07… seven minutes and nothing’s left?” In doubt, I asked where the collection was, and was granted a funny face for response, accompanied by “Hay hiyye, bass el banet, hoover, hoover!”

All I remember after that, is seeing someone looking just like me – or was it me????? – grabbing a dress that no-one seemed to want, trying it on right there, in the middle of the store that now looked like a war zone, and run to the cashier before anyone would strip her from it…

It felt so nice and quiet, outside, back in the darkness of the parking lot. I even managed to get to work 15 minutes in advance. Can’t really tell now if that was all just a dream.  Maybe I should check my credit card to make sure…

Pascale S.