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Watch Last Night's Lanvin x H&M Haute Couture Runway Show

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Last night's Lanvin x H&M runway show and shopping party was a strange and heady mix of fashion fantasy and collabo clusterfuck. Held at the Pierre and dotted with luminaries like Sofia Coppola, Andie MacDowell, Anna Sui, and Alexander Wang, the event felt like proof that high street designer collections make everyone crazy, even the most sophisticated of insiders.

The runway show was genuinely gorgeous. (Check out the video and Jak and Jil's photos below.) Models like Pixie Geldof, Dree Hemingway, and Anna Dello Russo, all styled like punky heiresses by Katie Grand, strutted out from under an arch made of roses on which the Lanvin x H&M logo was picked out in neon. It's a shame that the video comes with its own soundtrack, because the noise was part of the fun—photographers hooted and catcalled and the whole crowd cheered over a mix of jazzy female singers and remixed arias.

Afterwards, the elated crowd rushed out of the room—and came to a dead stop. In order to prevent utter chaos in the shopping salon, everyone was given a colorful little card printed with a designated time slot. Celebrities got first dibs, but of course, half the crowd had already lost their cards and the other half immediately decided to cut the line. The resulting hurry-up-and-wait atmosphere felt exactly like the scene outside an H&M every time a collection gets released, except that instead of standing on Fifth Avenue clutching Starbucks cups we were all in a lovely room at the Pierre wearing our highest heels. Also, every couple minutes someone like Reem Acra drifted by.

The takeaway: Lanvin knows how to throw a party. As for tomorrow's release, it could go one of two ways. It's possible that nobody will go as crazy for Lanvin—or be as willing to suffer through the frustration and minor humiliation of waiting for hours for an H&M dress—as last night's fashion insiders. On the other hand, it's also possible that the pushing and queuing and general retail insanity was simply a portent of things to come. We'll be liveblogging, of course, so stay tuned.
· The runway show [Jak and Jil]
· Backstage shots [Jak and Jil]
· All Lanvin x H&M coverage [Racked NY]

Anna Sui

113 Greene Street, New York, NY 10012 (212) 941-8406 Visit Website

Lanvin

815 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10065 646-439-0380 Visit Website

Alexander Wang

103 Grand Street, New York, NY 10013 212-977-9683 Visit Website