Another high-end collaboration for H&M, this time starring Kenzo: the collection is set to be revealed on October 19 and ready to purchase in 250 H&M stores around the world on November 3.

As the first promotional pictures surfaced, I started to show conflicting feelings about the collection: Is it overworked? Cool for boys and blah for the girls? Is this too complicated for the mass market?

If you are a fashion victim, skip all the text and run to the pictures: I know you are going to love all of them incoditionally.

To the rest of the world, ok let's talk about this colorful sartorial effort: would you pay for this?

"Ok, maybe there's too much going on here..."

This is a common reaction (again, if you are not a fashion victim) to a first naive look at the designs.

However, let me prove to you that if you focus on the statement pieces alone, you might give this collabration a chance.

Let's forget those animal printed sock boots and those elbow-length gloves for a moment (better forever): just take a look at the jackets and the t-shirts, the warm coats and swaters, those cool visor sunglasses, maxi-dresses and scarves...can you see yourself rocking at least one of those pieces in your daily life?

If the answer is yes, than this collection might provide you with something unique.

Kenzo's designers, Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, have conceived this collection as a conversation between Kenzo Takada's signature designs and the house new aesthetics.

An intellctual approch at its finest, also when it comes to the advertising: indeed Kenzo has enlisted an eclectic global crew of creatives to promote and model the new designs, like artists, musicitians, models, photographers, activists, writers and more (full list: writer and activist Amy Sall, photographer Youngjun Koo, artist and DJ Juliana Huxtable, musician and performance artist Oko Ebombo, fashion editor Harriet Verney, makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench, artist Ingrid, musician Anna of the North, model and rapper Le1f, and models Mae Lapres, Hao Liu, Selena Forrest, Tom Gaskin, Julia Banas and Pierre Painchaud). 

 “They’re people we admire, icons in their own fields, people who are influential beyond their fashion sensibility,” 

[Carol Lim to Vogue]

A (too) bold collection that despites all the odds might speak to everyone: as we wait for the price list to be released, it's impossible not to think if this new collaboration will cause a scene like Balmain last year!

Kenzo x H&M hits H&M stores and online on November 3.

written by:Stella