So the $10 million dollar question is…are you going to wait in line for the Maison Martin Margiela collection at H&M?
I’m debating whether to swing by the mall on Thursday and check out a couple pieces, though probably not buy. It’s not like I need them after all.
What do I need want are the color variations of the perfect metallic hair-ring…I picked up gold the other day, and now I’m kicking myself for not picking up silver and copper. 
Similar to what was seen on the Dries Van Noten runways for S/S 2012, H&M has put out their version (which looks similar to a couple plastic ones with metallic foil on them I’ve had since the 80′s…I think they were Goody, originally.) Deliciously minimalist, problem-solving construction so your hair isn’t falling out of your DIY napkin ring/copper plumbing piece you’re making do with. Sometimes DIY is not always the answer to a basic construction problem…and buying at retail price will save you a lot of time and frustration. 
I have fine hair and find that anything metal and heavy will slip right out of it. The H&M piece has an inner ring that secures the hair elastic, and a snap closure that’s easy to apply, and is only $4.98.
By strange coincidence, all the metal I was wearing today was H&M…gold metal hair-ring and copper choker bought Sunday, and gold elongated pyramid earrings purchased back in June or so. Nails are suede-finish Amber by Julep, a perfectly-matte, velvety-finish dull gold.
As for the Margiela collection, I’m thinking possible DIYs for that hitched-up turtleneck (safety-pins applied under the hem to hitch things up)…that trompe l’oeil bodysuit (just tack on a black bra to a nude long-sleeved leotard)…
…that glove clutch (attach gloves to your clutch bag with some leather glue
…those hand-painted loafers (paint your black loafers with some white latex [not acrylic, and not leather] paint)…that pieced-together coat (2 different coats, stitched together into one)…
…and those plexi wedge pumps…though I’m questioning whether time and effort is better spent just buying those heels as-is. Sometimes just plunking down the $4.98…or in the case of the plexiglass heels, $299…is an actual cost-savings when it comes to something that needs to bear weight and be flexed multiple times in a day, like shoes…
Also, the $20 million dollar question: Will you buy something knowing that it is extremely recognizable [and may remain so for years] in the collective conscious as from a certain collection, store, or designer?
xoxox
Carly
Margiela for H&M Collection photos from Refinery29.com. See the whole collection here.
I just love it when a company takes something fairly entrenched in our culture – and makes a design improvement upon it. Case in point: these Goody DoubleWear hair elastics and headbands I recently spied at my local Target.
I’ve been growing my hair out for awhile, and it seems almost every day I’m wandering around with a hair elastic around my wrist and a headband on, since I just like having my hair up and off my face most of the time (but I’m determined to wear it down since I went to all the trouble of growing it out). But yes, the elastic around my wrist looks like precisely that…a boring black bit of elastic…and my headband often hurts my head after awhile but I can’t just slip it off when I’m out and about and stick it in my pocket or something. (I go through plastic headbands like candy because I always misplace them somewhere and then sit on them or snap them in half somehow.)
Enter these lovely things – actually chic, affordable (around $4.99 for a set!), surprisingly well-made elastics that sport a thin metal tube. The headbands come in a set of gold and silver – and the hair elastics come in black with silver, black with gold, or shades of blue with silver. (There may be more, I just haven’t found them yet!) They look amazing with a plain white blouse, or even dressy when worn with an LBD. A
nd they look fabulous stacked with other jewelry too! I can easily pull my hair back with them when I want things off my face. And then drop them back onto my neck or my wrist when my hair needs to come down for awhile.
