They queue for 2 days for Kenzo-H&M collection

H&M's collaboration with Kenzo was launched at 8am yesterday at Orchard Building and Ion Orchard.

The queue at Orchard Building started on Tuesday morning. By around 7.30am yesterday, there were about 100 people in the queue.

The first 30 were let into the store at 8am and given 10 minutes to shop. Similar to last year's Balmain x H&M sale, shoppers were allowed to buy only one piece per style.

In addition to a security team on standby, H&M Singapore also hired additional manpower and security for crowd control.

This designer collaboration, H&M's 13th, is one of the Swedish brand's more colourful and print-crazy collections as Kenzo, which was started by Japanese designer Kenzo Takada in 1970, is known for its use of bold and vivid animal prints.

WAIT: By 7.30am yesterday, there were about 100 people in the queue. PHOTO: THE STRAITS TIMES

The 111-piece collection includes tiger-print jersey rollneck tops, leggings, jeans and floor-length dresses made from 300m of ribbon each.Prices range from $17.90 for a pair of tabi socks to $599 for a men's down jacket to $699 for the ribbon dress.

Housewife Sherry Kuhara, 43, and student Maria Jessica, 22, first met while queueing for last year's Balmain x H&M collaboration. This year, they were determined to be among the first to be let into the store and to buy everything they see.

'GONE'

Miss Jessica said: "For the Balmain collaboration, we started queueing on the day itself at 3am and we were far back in the queue. We managed to get only one item each because almost everything was gone."

Mrs Kuhara started queueing on Tuesday at 8am, and Miss Jessica joined her on Wednesday.

"I'm really looking forward to this because I'm a huge Kenzo fan," said Mrs Kuhara.

"I want to get the sweaters, reversible dress and pyjama shirt-and-pants set. I'm not selling any of these on Carousell, they're all for myself."

She was joined by her husband and they were let into the store at 8am. She spent a total of $2,400 on 18 pieces of clothing, walking out of the store with six bags.

Miss Jessica bought 12 items for a total of $1,300.

Singapore Institute of Management student Richie Ongah, 16, an Indonesian, bought five shirts and sweaters for himself, and a black T-shirt for his sister. He spent $567.

–​ The Straits Times Online