Street-style star launches line for H&M
Anna Dello Russo’s accessories collection includes crotch-high boots and chunky bangles
PARIS— At the party during fashion week to launch the Anna Dello Russo for H&M accessories collection, guests at the Paradis Latin cabaret club were wondering how Dello Russo would make her entrance. The Italian fashion editor who works for Japan Vogue is, after all, quite the entrancemaker. She is known to show up at 10 a.m. fashion shows dressed in feathers, a wild fascinator bearing oversized fruit and a pile-it-all-on mentality when it comes to jewelry. And that would be her first outfit of the day — she’ll change several times before cocktail hour. She is the perfect fodder for the streetstyle photographers who worship her. At the party, she made her entrance not from the giant sugar replica of a gold boot from the collection, as one guest joked, but from the ceiling. Descending on a swing, she joined a posse of dancers on a stage dressed up in wigs and bodysuits to look like her. And that was just the beginning of the party that included a performance by Azealia Banks. This collection marks the first such collaboration that global, fast-fashion retailer H&M has done with a street-style and social media star. Normally these highly anticipated collections have been attached to such design impresarios as Lagerfeld, Cavalli and Versace. Naturally, Dello Russo’s collection is based on accessories. From sunglasses framed with gold crocodiles to glittering necklaces, chunky bangles and leather boots that go to crotch level. This limited edition collection goes on sale worldwide Thursday and in Toronto will be available only at H&M locations on Bloor St. W., the Toronto Eaton Centre and Yorkdale shopping centre. Yes, it’s brash and in your face and screams take-notice-of-me. Well, you don’t get to be a street-style star by blending in with the background, do you?