M by Madge

When I went to H&M today, which was staffed by employees wearing black t's with "M by Madonna" on them to mark the opening of her new clothing campaign, I noticed that there were a number of dresses left hanging on the racks. That kind of surprised me because I had spied some of the dresses online and though not as fashion forward as the 2005 Stella McCartney campaign, I definitely aimed to buy at least one M dress today. For some reason, though, once I saw that the prices were almost twice the amount of a typical H&M price I talked myself out of a purchase. It's not that I couldn't afford the prices, but there's a reason I cheered when this city got an H&M. Since I was a teenager living in Germany, this store was the one place I knew I could get the hippest clothes at an insane level of affordability. Today, as I watched St. Louisans scope the dresses, then one by one turn away to browse the rest of the racks I wondered if they all thought as I did. The dresses may have Madonna's branding and come in cuts that are very "now", but the styles are extremely mainstream and just not that different from what you would already find in the store. As I placed the last dress back on the rack I said under my breath and in my best faux-Brit accent, "notbloodylikely, Madge." -K