H&M - Melbourne's GPO

I decided to head in for the opening day of the first H&M store in Australia, which is located in Melbourne's iconic GPO. In all honesty, if I wasn't planning on blogging about it, I would have left it a few weeks before I ventured in to check it out; I don't do crowds and I don't do queues. When I arrived to an enormous crowd (the numbers were estimated at well over  3000 when the ribbon was cut at 10am) and a queue that wound around the building like a maze, I was tempted to hightail it back home. But I had committed to myself to be there for the opening so begrudgingly, I took my place in line.

A red carpet was laid out to line up on which was a bit of a novelty at first but wore off after 15 minutes in the blaring sunshine, with my only distraction a gorgeous Kate Spade bag being worn by the girl in front of me.

Eventually the line made its way into the cover of the GPO and by this point I was now chatting away with the lovely owner of the Kate Spade bag and a girl who asked me if I got my style inspiration from Lady Gaga. After an hour of lining up we had weaved our way back to the front of the building and I entertained myself by scanning fellow queue-dwellers outfits, both for inspiration and internally awarded, made up prizes.

These lovely ladies took out the award for best dressed:

These shoes won best sneaker prize:

 

And this lady gets an honourable mention for her enthusiasm and overall cuteness:

 

This 4,5000 square metre, three-store space is very grand and has commanding elegance and sophistication. As you walk in there is a mannequin display, very beautifully dressed, but very clean and commercial styling.

The women’s clothing section was a sea of black and neutral tones which causes my eyes to naturally roll over the racks without really absorbing what's there. I was instantly starting to feel that this wouldn't become one of my regular haunts. Amongst it all there was definitely some fantastic pieces which I've tried to show with the below edit, but because of the size of it, you really need to take the time to leisurely go through it all.

I made my way up to the top floor and didn't stop to check out the men's wear section but made a bee line for the kids section which was a lot less crowded. I often shop in the kid’s section of department stores and this is one area where H&M certainly impressed me. There were cats galore, unicorns, a pale blue/pink lined parker that I fell in love with and Hello Kitty! The best part is they go up to a size 18 in a lot of their kid’s clothing.

The middle floor houses the lingerie, maternity wear and active wear but was also where everyone was lining up for the change rooms so I found it hard to navigate my way around. Here are a couple of pictures of the lingerie offerings; they are all very reasonably priced, similar to cotton on body.

After about an hour in the store I was starting to have a bit of an IKEA moment where I couldn't quite figure how to get back down from the middle floor but eventually worked it out. I ended up leaving empty handed despite being slightly tempted by this jacket as I was making my way to the exit

I know this is far from a glowing review but do keep in mind the crowds were what made the experience a bit overwhelming for me. One of the stand out draw cards of H&M is the price point, I had to keep checking price tags because I couldn't believe how reasonable they were. Some of the pieces were priced lower than what you would find in Target and with a great standard of quality. For an example this heart printed crop tee was $12.95

I will certainly go back when the fuss dies down and I can have a shopping experience that is a little less intense.

Have you been to check out H&M? What did you pick up?xo