The security guard dad did it for his sons. The Chinese from Cambridge did it for online equality. Shweta Shiware joined the determined in a serpentine queue at Oxford Street in London at 5 am on a winter morning, to find out what it takes to get your hands on the Lanvin-H&M collection that the fashion world had been waiting for
The security guard dad did it for his sons. The Chinese from Cambridge did it for online equality.u00a0Shweta Shiwareu00a0joined the determined in a serpentine queue at Oxford Street in London at 5 am on a winter morning, to find out what it takes to get your hands on the Lanvin-H&M collection that the fashion world had been waiting for
Wing Yee Fung, Xue Shizhang, Xia Jun Zhang and Luna Zhang believe in the larger good of humanity. On November 23, hours before the crack of dawn, their pious plan was to make Lanvin a part of every average fashion lover's wardrobe. 
Shoppers had begun queuing up outside the Oxford Street H&M store
on November 23 as early as 2 am, to be the first to get their hands on
the long-anticipated Lanvin collection for H&M.
At 2 am, the three fashion students from Cambridge braved London's 3-degree cold to be the first in queue outside Oxford Circus' H&M store. The motley bunch from China had a game plan that could outsmart those crafted by the Ocean's 13u00a0 boys -- to methodically raid the Lanvin-H&M collection on the morning it launched, and sell it enmasse on eBay. "We will sell the range on eBay to help fans who don't live in London, get the chance to own Lanvin," said budding fashion designer Luna Zhang. 
Luna Zhang (in glasses) with friends Wing Yee Fung, Xue Shizhang and
Xia Jun Zhang after their shopping adventure that left them wondering
how they'd carry the bags home. They finally decided to hire two cabs.
"Thank god our parents don't live in London. They would be shocked to
see how much we have shopped," Zhang said.
Zhang and her friends were not alone. Tuesday morning made a lot more Londoners smile. Forty two year-old Zac Ilunga doesn't like queuing up for fashion. The security guard would rather have caught some sleep after working the night shift on Monday, but he was at the store standing patiently for his turn, doing what any doting dad would. "I'm here for my three boys. They have asked me to bring back a whole list of items," he said, smiling for what would have made an 'awww!' snapshot for a liberating fashion moment.
Swedish clothing company H&M (Hennes & Mauritz) with over 200 stores worldwide, has played the perfect leveller since 2004, having collaborated in the past with Karl Lagerfeld, Viktor & Rolf and Comme des Gar ons. This season it's Lanvin, the 140 year-old Parisian couture house that H&M is romancing. "Men and women who couldn't afford Lanvin can go ahead and do it. This project was more about being generous to the world; it wasn't about making a dress for less. It was about taking H&M, and pushing it to become luxury," Lanvin's artistic director Alber Elbaz had said at the International Herald Tribune Heritage Luxury Conference held in London early November. 
Your time's up! Angela (left) was time-keeper for the morning,
roaming within the store with a stopwatch, warning shoppers they
"have just seven minutes left!"
"Lanvin for less" meant swiping your plastic for ufffd29.99 to own a trademark floral sequin tee, and a ruched one-shoulder evening dress for ufffd99.99 (Lanvin couture dresses are famously priced between ufffd2,000 to ufffd6,000).
Keeley Watson had set her mind on a yellow dress with dramatic puff shoulders, after seeing a model wear one in the brand's advertisement. The effervescent 30 year-old resident of Hackney convinced her boyfriend to buy her the "object of my desire" for Christmas. Dressed in a ferocious leopard print hoodie, Watson was determined to take home her Christmas gift. "You have to come prepared. No time to faff around," she said, craning her neck over the crowd of heads to check whether her dress was still available.
She wasn't kidding. Shopping for the Lanvin-H&M collection was like preparing for a competitive exam paper. You had to have a strategy. The queue of hundreds of shoppers were differentiated by colour "bracelets" around their wrists. The door opened every 10 minutes to let in 15 customers at a time into the cordoned-off womenswear section. In-house staffer Angela was exclusively assigned the task of monitoring the minutes. "Seven minutes to go ufffd!" she'd holler, leaving the nervous to dart for their merchandise.
Not exactly the Lanvin-ooh-la-la experience. Not even by a whisker, with the pavement outside littered with countless Lanvin-H&M ribbon-tied carrier bags -- a vision of assembly line fast fashion -- their new owners figuring where to grab some breakfast.
What was up for grabs?
some of Alber Elbaz's most popular pieces including the flower sequined T-shirt (24.99 pounds; Rs 1805 approx.). The womenswear line included around 48 pieces ranging from printed trend coats to leopard-print shoes and bright cocktail dresses.u00a0
Sweden: Lanvin's birthplace
Stockholm: People stand outside a security barrier to look at dresses in a H&M store on November 23, after the launch of Lanvin's line. For the operation, Alber Elbaz designed cocktail dresses with rose-patterning or yellow frills and sharp-tailored party frock numbers, with democratic price tags. Pic/AFP Photo
Israel: Elbaz's birthplace
Tel Aviv: This is a picture taken on March 11, 2010, and shows Israeli customers thronging the new H&M store in a Tel Aviv mall, as the Swedish company opens its first retail store in Israel. Pic/AFP Photo
Guess who else dropped by?
Bollywood actress Amisha Patel introduced herself as an executive of a company, and was reluctant to get photographed. She posed with shopping bags covering her face. She bought herself an aubergine, off-shoulder ruched dress.u00a0
'If you can buy a body, why will you want a new dress?'
Israeli designer and Lanvin's artistic director Alber Elbaz on being disturbed by plastic surgery, making 'women fly' and why he won't ever come to India to make a maharaja-meets-Elizabeth Taylor collection. Sunday Mid Day meets the man behind the current hysteria
It's a signal not to expect the conventional, when you see a stout man walk into a room brimming with key fashion players, dressed in a black jacket, trousers quirkily skirting his ankles, brown moccasins worn without socks, and the giant trademark silk bowtie sitting off-centre. Alber Elbaz, the 49 year-old designer who brought enormous reputation to Lanvin after joining the French couture house in October 2001, is in the mood to shock.
The love for Lanvin: An original Lanvin evening dress could cost
between 2000 and 6000 pounds (Rs 1,44,373 to Rs 4,33,046 approx.).
The couture house is known for Elbaz's use of lush fabrics, ribbons and
blossoms that celebrate sensuality. At the helm of Lanvin, Elbaz brought
sexy back in vogue, in true Parisian glamour style.
"I love seeing men and women who are overweight, underweight ufffd imperfections don't disturb me," he admitted to an audience at the International Herald Tribune Heritage Luxury Conference on November 9 in London.
Subtly socking parables of perfection in the teeth, most of them created by commanding luxury brands, Photoshopped dreams that drift in fashion Bibles, and the disturbing trend of plastic surgery, Elbaz is tired of "seeing puppets". "The body is becoming like a new dress. Everything can be bought, and if you can buy a body, why will you want a new dress?" he asked.
In an era where machines breathe life into impossible ideas (what else would you term embroidered latex in the gold metal "robot" leggings by Nicolas Ghesqui re for Balenciaga), Elbaz is adamantly old-fashioned. Not a fan of the Internet, he barely manages to type text messages on his cell phone. The Moroccan-born Israeli designer relies on intuition, and believes it's more important to be "relevant than cool".
And so, when he throws a matter of fact, "I'm not going to go to India and making a collection about maharaja meeting Elizabeth Taylor in Venice. It's not really my story" at you, you know Elbaz is what-you-see-is-what-you-get.
There was a reason why Elbaz mentioned India while decoding heritage and tradition. In 2004, he was sitting in a small Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong, and asked for spicy Chinese sauce. The waiter returned with ketchup. The episode left Elbaz asking, "Whether going forward means to lose your tradition, heritage, and whether red spicy sauce can co-exist with ketchup?" According to Elbaz, "Tradition is great; a know-how, like the French would say, savoir-faire. But tradition can become a formula, and there's nothing more dangerous than creating with a formula. The best inventions were born when formulae didn't exist. Tradition can reinforce, but also block you."
His eureka! moments don't demand intellectual brooding. A sofa and carbs will do. "My best inspiration comes when I'm on my couch, having some potatoes ufffd and just dreaming and thinking and hearing stories," he smiles, his salmon cheeks turning a brighter shade. He tells you how fashion is not second skin. What designers must do is create fantasies, and "make women fly". "This is how I work. Quite twisted, right?" he asks, pushing up the large rectangular spectacle frames higher to sit comfortably on his nose.
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