Viktor & Rolf @ H&M: A Contact Sport

This morning I woke up at 7:45 for hopefully my last anxiety filled, sweat drenched, adrenaline laced shopping excursion of the week.

At 8:20 I made my way over to the H&M at 51st and 5th Avenue for the unleashing of the Viktor & Rolf collection:

I arrived at 9:10 (read 10 minutes after the store opened).
I didn't see a line outside like Jimmy Choo, so I thought, for a second, that it was tame.

Well, see for yourselves:

Craziness. I've surmised that New York women are the arbiters for fashion because they treat it like it's their life's blood...essentially they'd kill for it. Readers, this was hands down the craziest scene of the week.

Seeing everyone grabbing this & that made my shopaholic heart palpitate. Basically I got caught up like Usher and joined the melee...I grabbed jeans, dresses, tops, anything. I figured, hey, it's H&M, I could probably afford alllll this, plus have a few pesos left over for some strawberry mentos or something.

It was only after a few minutes that I thought to look at price tags:

Shoes, $100. Black skirt, $60. Ruffle front dress, $100.These aren't H&M prices!!!!

Since I'd gone through the trouble of actually showing up on time, I decided to just try stuff on. Turns out the line for the dressing room was the prime place to pick up clothes that earlier fashionistas casted off:

I picked up a few dresses, and went to try on my goodies:
This signature $100 dress was cute, but a little tight.

I didn't really love this $100 dress in this color..

But fell in love with it in black:

I figured. I can wear a black dress anytime. It's signature Viktor & Rolf. I'm set.
I walked out of the dressing room feeling good, but almost stopped short when I peeped black trench coats in this woman's hands:

Looking at the pic, doesn't it seem as if she has mad bags?? She wasn't the only one!
Anyway the trench looked promising, so I was set to find one. Just my luck as I was walking towards the cash register, I saw a woman take a black trench from her pile and--almost in slow motion--place it on a rack.
Like vultures, myself and 5 other women grabbed it and started tugging! After we figured out it was a size 10, 3 hands dropped away, and 2 were left...mine and the hand of another woman.

I said, "I saw it first!" She said, "No you di-in't!" and proceeded to pull as I tried to explain to her the democratic rule of "calling it first." She wasn't having it so...we literally tugged at this jacket for a gooooood minute. It could've gotten messy, y'all, but as my friend Gi would say, I'm not that type of woman (well, not anymore).
Luckily for both of us this fashionista also moonlighted as a negotiator:

She said that she had the same trench in a size 12 in her hand...since I'm a little busty, I figured a size 12 might work. So we made the switch. After laughing at our silliness (you've gotta laugh to keep from crying) this scrappy diva and I actually made friends, then went upstairs to try our respective trenches on.
This is how hers looked on:

Cute!
The trench was $130, but I figured I could use it a bunch. Long story short, I bought it.
This is how mine looks on:

Not bad. All my friends say it looks great, but I'm not totally sure the silhouette is for me. It's a great coat, but something about it--on me at least--screams tent.

Instead of hightailing back to the store, I've decided to put my trench on www.ebay.com

So I'm holding on to one signature dress. Not bad at all. I plan on wearing it to work tomorrow with maybe some tights and heels.
*Scratching your head at what the fuss is all about? Stay tuned for an exclusive interview!

Smootches!