Oh, Roberto: The Pre-Opening Madness

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

A special Racked operative is in line at the H&M store at Fifth Avenue and 51st Street to experience the joy, the rapture, the insanity that is Roberto Cavalli for H&M. These are her stories.

Here's the word from the street, circa 9:24am: "This is insane. The line is really long. Got here at 9am and I'm in a line that stretches around the block, halfway down around the next block. He's here. Roberto, I mean. There's a red carpet, he's at the front. He's posing for pictures and smoking a cigar. The women are all rolling their R's... Rrrrrrroooberto! All these housewives, and Europeans. I think by the time I get inside there'll be nothing left, but we'll see. Also very interesting to note that there are a lot of people in line wearing animal print. And a surprisingly large number of men."