I have been hearing some first hand accounts of the H&M Stella McCartney launch in New York City (NYC), and the Fashiontribes.com blog has a post by blogette Rachel that does a good job of capturing what it was like at an NYC H&M during this launch.
Like many a fashionista, I was overly excited to be at Soho’s own H&M Thursday November 10th for the launch of the Stella McCartney for H&M.
The launch degenerated into chaos. (I was nowhere near an H&M, but I felt it… I got blown off by someone for this launch.)
In the mayhem, as I reached for the trench coat I so desired (yes, I ranked the pieces I wanted-more on that later) another girl shoved me from behind, lurching for the same trench-the last small available. As she tried to jar the hanger from me, the rack above came crashing down, hitting my head. Needless to say, I let her have the coat.
Thank goodness mannequins are not people.
In the store down the block, the mannequins were ripped apart and dismantled for their clothes. At 51st street, women ran to the merchants like rabid dogs, hunting their prey.
The post goes on to assess the handling of the launch and gives some advice on trying to secure these types of events in the future for both the stores and the customers, such as
(the stores)
Instead of allowing the line to file in (My suggestion, you ask? Allow 10 people in at a time, and allow each person only one of each item), the H&M employees allowed the line-and anyone who happened past the door at that moment-to huddle in.
(the customers)
Next time, I am just going to pay double and shop from home on eBay. I would rather get only a couple pieces-the ones i absolutely adore-than get a massive pile of clothing and a head wound.
Essentially, Rachel is saying learn from these events and use that experience to plan better next time, and she gives examples of this. That message is worth reinforcing, and the hard part is learning the right lessons and applying that knowledge effectively in a world full of tradeoffs (e.g., in response to the 911 terrorist attacks, think of the confiscation of nail clippers from plane passengers versus locking strengthened cockpit doors on the plane during the trip). Bruce Schneier has devoted whole books to this topic as applied to the world of security.
The podcast covers the events in more detail. (The way she tells the story had me in stitches at moments.)
(We have had a little work with people in the fashion industry, and the mega outgoing personalities really make these some of our favorite jobs. H&M chaos aside, fashion goes hand in hand with New York City.)