Misstropolis

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Oh the Disappointment

by Alisa Neely

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Oh, the disappointment of it all! Such fallen expectations, such dashed hopes for bad-girl glamour and elongated limbs!

Like a bad blind date, the Kate Moss collection for Topshop, unveiled at Barneys on May 9, turned out to be only good on paper (or online,) in other people’s exaggerated descriptions.

As I wrote last week, I had plans to check out the collection as soon as it arrived at Barneys in Boston; not only to cruise for my own closet, but to see how the fashion community responded. I scoped out Copley, fully prepared to elbow and knee my way through crowds of chic shoppers, all clued in early about the arrival of the much - heralded collection. I even skipped my coffe stop so as to have two hands free to scoop and grab.

I had read the accounts from London and Paris, I saw the spread in Vogue. I had been at the Stella McCartney opening at H&M. I was ready.

As Barney’s vast downstairs seemed all quiet and calm, I assumed the mayhem must be upstairs, in the co-op department. So, up I went. And down went my excitement, soon as I reached the top step. There, looking baffled, was a sorry little group of TEN people. Let me repeat, 10 people. London had thousands, Paris sold out in moments, New York at least had hundreds, and is said to have sold out of the collection in an hour.

Boston - 10 people; and we aren’t talking about the Chestnut Hill Mall. This definitely brought Boston’s fashion cred. into question.

Greg, Chief of Operations, approached the 10 of us and announced solemlely that he would do his best to get approval to let us in a couple minutes early. But, he cautioned seriously, there were rules: only 5 items per person, and NO pictures. He stated this in a very firm Chief of Operations sort of voice, and then released the crowd of 10 into the spot where they had placed the whole TWO racks, all 16 pieces of the collection Boston received, next to a large sign bearing Kate’s name.

I knew Barney’s New York received 26 of the 90 piece collection. Oh, the disappointment.

There were tanks in various colors, black skinny jeans, a couple blazers. There was a floral print dress too, but when I touched it I think it scratched my hand. And the pieces ran so small that even the little size 2 girls were asking for 8s. Anyone who actually had ribs needed a 12, which they, due possibly to lack of space on the 2 racks, did not have.

The fits were poor and the prices were frankly high for cheaply-made merchandise from Topshop. I don’t buy the Proneza Schuler line at Target to pay 115 bucks for a tee shirt/ dress. If I wanted to hit three digits I sure as hell wouldn’t be at TopShop or Target. I’d be at um, Barneys…

So maybe these Boston shoppers knew much more than I did and stayed away for good reason! At least they got to have their morning latte and didn’t have to endure an earful from Greg. Maybe not falling for the celebrity designer ploy shows an incredible amount of sophistication and restraint on Boston’s part.

Or, maybe not.

If you saw the collection either here or elsewhere, let us know what you thought. We’d love to hear from those of you who saw it in Europe. Perhaps it was an importing problem. Or maybe not.