My H&M Australia Picks

April 5. Unless you've been living under a rock you would know that date is the day H&M lands in Australia.

If you haven't already noticed from my blog posts, I love H&M. People are always a bit shocked given the presence of high end designer wears in my wardrobe - they think I'd be more of a Topshop or Zara kind of girl. No, no! It's all about choosing the right thing at H&M. The base prices are definitely cheaper, but if you venture into the mid end ranges they're great quality, great designs and happen to fit me perfectly. Plus, they have the most amazing sales. Part of their business strategy involves ensuring stock doesn't sit on shelves for more than a set number of weeks. After that, they have to put those items on sale and thus there is a never-ending sales rack in H&M. Love!

My favourite H&M items are amazing blazers (no more than US$60, and often cheaper), great work dresses (including a black crepe back dress I bought in Morocco for the equivalent of 7 euros) and a beautiful coat from Hong Kong that was worn by Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl.

Anyway, enough of my H&M rave. I'm patiently waiting for Australian online shopping to launch. In the meantime, these are the items I am loving:

Premium 100% Wool Felt Hat - $24.95: I am totally getting this when it's available to buy online!

Sweatshirt Skirt $49.95 - I love the colour of this. I need to see the fabric to see if its worth the price but I can see this being very wearable all seasons of the year! Remember my comment above about choosing wisely at H&M? Fabric is such a big indicator and so this could be a definite hit or definite miss. We will have to wait and see! But gorgeous cut and colour.

Double Breasted Coat $39.95 - This coat is 51% wool, uber cute, seems to have the signature Swedish well-cut design that fits me like a glove and is under $40. I mean really, what more can you ask for? Pity I have a tonne of other coats already that are similar, including a Zara one that I bought when I lived in the US and even on sale it was $80. You get the price differential already, yes?

Figure fit coat $89.95 - I want this. It is gorgeous. So elegant. A bit more pricy, but again its 60% wool but looks more light weight and perfect for our mild Australian winters.

Sleepwear Set $27.95 - OK so it may be polyester, but its super cute and looks comfy and still quite luxe despite being chain store. And really, Peter Alexander quality is not that much better usually but much pricier!

And because I can't help myself, a few other cute items that I would need to see in real life to know for sure. But uber cute overload!

And I haven't even got to the Homewares yet - I fell in love with the homewares store and collection when I went to Sweden. It was my guilty pleasure. I love that they will be bringing it to Oz!

The prices on the Australian website are actually decent too - shocking, I know! But we will have to see if the same can be said for the full range once it hits stores. I'm a little disappointed that some of my favourite items (work out wear, swimwear and the full work wear range) aren't available but I am patiently waiting!

What are your favourite items?

H&M 'Official' Announcement

So you might recall I've always loved H&M and once again they've more officially announced they will be opening in 2014 via a facebook post tonight.

I announced this some 4 months ago in this post however back then it wasn't known when exactly. Well 2014 is still not quite that specific, but if my sources from back then are still correct they will start with Melbourne first and at least we have a ballpark time frame now and not some 'it will be in the near future'...perhaps 2025?

What I said then, still stands in terms of my opinions so check out that post!

H&M + Australia = Yay!

A quick post to say how excited I am that H&M have finally confirmed they will be opening in Australia!

Three words for you - about bloody time! As I've posted before, Australia's been long playing catch up on the international market, yet proof in sales figures show the Australian market is longing for these kinds of stores (Australia often ranks in the top 5 countries for sales on websites like ASOS).

Anyway, it has been confirmed today that they are opening in Melbourne, which has been on the ragtrade gossip columns for literally months now (maybe even years?). Now I won't go into the whole Melbourne v Sydney thing for launching brands - I could go on for days and have lots of theories and thoughts about it - but I will say one thing...as excited as I am I'm also a bit wary.

You see, H&M has always been the one shop I try and visit everywhere I go overseas. The prices are always fairly consistent and the product offerrings always differ from country to country, shop to shop making it all the more exciting. Their sales strategy is clever but also rewards those who frequently visit their stores which just makes me love it even more! So why am I wary? Yet with everything, I'm wary of the prices and range we'll get here. They love to jack up the prices as soon as they land on Australian stores. OK so fine, freight is expensive and we don't have the population, but the price differentials are often astronomical compared to overseas! Not to mention the dodgy leftover stock they usually lump us with.

I'm glad I really only buy basics from H&M because it will be a little sad to see every second person on the street wearing H&M once it hits our shores! But I suppose we will just have to wait and see what happens but I'm happy to say, Australia is moving in the right direction on the shopping front :)