This Time Last Week

...I was queing in the cold for 40 minutes in order to fight with a bunch of desperate housewives of the first batch of H&M's Marni collection. I blame Milan. I probably would not have found out about this designer collection on time if it hadn't been for the huge billboard right next to the cathedral and the ad I then saw in a magazine I bought here. I liked the sneak-peek and made an entry in my calendar. As you can see, there were few people queuing in front of me:

Well, what can I say...it was the first time I was out of an H&M branch that quickly while spending so much money (almost € 300!) in one go. This is the booty in the stylish limited edition bags. They actually also gave me a free cotton travel clothes bag.

You to be very quick and literally grab the things off the shelves, at the same time trying not to be trampled by women on a mission. The Gazelle briefly peeked in, but immediately fled, not feeling up to the brutality of the hunt before breakfast...

I got two sets of chunky melamine bracelets. One in ivory/black:

and one in grey/ivory/orange and red. Yes, the one on the left is actually bright red in real life. I did not like/need it that much and therefore gave it to a colleague:

My favourite piece is probably the silk blouse with different fabrics on the front on back side:

The skirt is really pretty and fits me perfectly, too. It's not lined and a rather wintery fabric, I have to say, but I'll definitely get some more wear out of it in the coming months:

They also had sequinned collars in black and white and I decided to snatch up the white version:

The cardigan I wasn't too enamoured with once I tried it on at home even though I liked the snug fit and the quality (merino wool). I found it too "ruffly" and went back to the shop to return it on Saturday, reasoning that spending €70 on something that would probably never see the light of day was not the wisest of investments:

When I was at H&M to return the cardie, I noticed some Marni items lying arounds so am assuming that they got another batch later on and only decided to hold it back on Thursday in order not to make the people who queued feel stupid.

In case you were wondering why I did not just order online: there was a "queue" on Thursday morning as well and the H&M where I got the stuff is practically a stone's throw from my office so I could just pop in on my way to work for a bit of early morning adrenaline rush...