Ok folks...just to let you know I'm a guy here..and I'm stating this in case the women's clothing happens to be far inferior to what I saw for the men's clothing at a store called H&M today.
I'm a semi-shopaholic..and I am aware of all the brands out there and I only purchase from high end depts like Neiman, Barney's, Saks, and Bloomies.
I've read, seen, and heard about H&M and I always thought this place was another gap...but today I went to Saks to see my SA and he and I ended up getting into a discussion about white shirts that would go with skinny ties. I saw a very nice RAF SIMONS white long sleeved shirt at Barney's but I really didn't feel like forking up 170$ on a white shirt (btw this is clearanced and original was probably like 450$...which probably seems like chump change for original priced women's clothing at barney's to some of you but kinda on high range for guys).
Anyway my SA tells me about how he saw a Dior-quality and lookalike white shirt at H&M that was like 20$ and he described it to me. I was really skeptical...but I know how well he judges clothing b/c I knew the guy for over 5 years and so I went to H&M and actually took a good look around the store...and I was amazed at some of the things I saw.
Many of the items I saw were copies of many of the brands that I see at Barney's COOP (J lindberg, mcq by alexander mcqueen, raf by raf simons, rogues gallery, phillip lim, etc) and european streetwear designs (energie, miss sixty, vsct, etc)....the thing is the price is like ten percent of such an item at a high end dept store...yet the quality (for some but definitely NOT ALL items) are on par with these luxury items (I'll give my full conclusion once these items come out of my washer and dryer...then I'll know for certain).
Many shirts, pants, and sweaters were incredibly high quality and everything that I tried on were all european cut and not that flabby banana republic cut (some jackets with fur looked really cheap though probably b/c there is no way to cut corners on fur costs)...but overall I have to say that if you're under 35, want to dress in the hippest current style out there (like out of a fashion magazine), and get the best out of ur money at the cheapest price this is the place to go (at least for a guy).
I picked up the shirt (29.99$) that my SA saw (I recognized it right away b/c it stood out) and purchased a pair of check patterned pants (10$) that would go well with boots . I'd say if you removed the label on these items and put both of them in Saks I would have believed it was supposed to be there....
I also saw a brown leather jacket priced at around 150$ that would have fooled me if someone were to have told me it were a grand (maybe it really wasn't leather but something else...I didn't look carefully on that one) and I also saw a 39.99$ shirt that clearly looked and felt like it belonged in the 200$+ category.
Anyway I looked for H&M on this forum...and the search limitations prevented me from searching with this keyword...so please don't be too harsh on me if this is a repost. For those of you who don't know about this store, I strongly urge you to check this store out if it is around in your area as you may be pleasantly surprised. If anyone wants to make comments about what I wrote/brand please feel free to contribute to this thread.
One thing I"m certain about is that from now on I'm going to be substituting a lot of future barney's and saks purchases at H&M. I came to the conclusion that for me it is still worth it even if the clothes get destroyed after like 3 washes.
I'm a semi-shopaholic..and I am aware of all the brands out there and I only purchase from high end depts like Neiman, Barney's, Saks, and Bloomies.
I've read, seen, and heard about H&M and I always thought this place was another gap...but today I went to Saks to see my SA and he and I ended up getting into a discussion about white shirts that would go with skinny ties. I saw a very nice RAF SIMONS white long sleeved shirt at Barney's but I really didn't feel like forking up 170$ on a white shirt (btw this is clearanced and original was probably like 450$...which probably seems like chump change for original priced women's clothing at barney's to some of you but kinda on high range for guys).
Anyway my SA tells me about how he saw a Dior-quality and lookalike white shirt at H&M that was like 20$ and he described it to me. I was really skeptical...but I know how well he judges clothing b/c I knew the guy for over 5 years and so I went to H&M and actually took a good look around the store...and I was amazed at some of the things I saw.
Many of the items I saw were copies of many of the brands that I see at Barney's COOP (J lindberg, mcq by alexander mcqueen, raf by raf simons, rogues gallery, phillip lim, etc) and european streetwear designs (energie, miss sixty, vsct, etc)....the thing is the price is like ten percent of such an item at a high end dept store...yet the quality (for some but definitely NOT ALL items) are on par with these luxury items (I'll give my full conclusion once these items come out of my washer and dryer...then I'll know for certain).
Many shirts, pants, and sweaters were incredibly high quality and everything that I tried on were all european cut and not that flabby banana republic cut (some jackets with fur looked really cheap though probably b/c there is no way to cut corners on fur costs)...but overall I have to say that if you're under 35, want to dress in the hippest current style out there (like out of a fashion magazine), and get the best out of ur money at the cheapest price this is the place to go (at least for a guy).
I picked up the shirt (29.99$) that my SA saw (I recognized it right away b/c it stood out) and purchased a pair of check patterned pants (10$) that would go well with boots . I'd say if you removed the label on these items and put both of them in Saks I would have believed it was supposed to be there....
I also saw a brown leather jacket priced at around 150$ that would have fooled me if someone were to have told me it were a grand (maybe it really wasn't leather but something else...I didn't look carefully on that one) and I also saw a 39.99$ shirt that clearly looked and felt like it belonged in the 200$+ category.
Anyway I looked for H&M on this forum...and the search limitations prevented me from searching with this keyword...so please don't be too harsh on me if this is a repost. For those of you who don't know about this store, I strongly urge you to check this store out if it is around in your area as you may be pleasantly surprised. If anyone wants to make comments about what I wrote/brand please feel free to contribute to this thread.
One thing I"m certain about is that from now on I'm going to be substituting a lot of future barney's and saks purchases at H&M. I came to the conclusion that for me it is still worth it even if the clothes get destroyed after like 3 washes.
H&M!
