You have less than a month to save up some money because on Nov. 5, H&M will be flooded with its newest collaboration with Balmain. Based on the photos that leaked over Instagram Thursday — and the hype generated by the leak — it looks like it’s going to be a good one.

Although a full preview of a designer collaboration is typically shown a couple of weeks before the release, H&M did not intend for the world to see the collection this early. That was compromised last week when a Chicago woman put dozens of photos of the collection on her Instagram.

Kathryn Swartz Rees had only a couple hundred followers on social media and no clear ties to the fashion industry. In an interview with The Cut, she said she just happened to search at the right time and came upon the H&M URL that contained all the photos. That H&M link was taken down immediately after the leak, and the Instagram account (@kswartz83) removed all photos of the collection. Sunday, Swartz Rees Instagrammed a note saying that H&M reps requested she take down the photos, and she complied.

Despite the efforts to clean up the chaos, once something is on the Internet, it is there for good. Evidently, screenshots were taken and the photos are now in the hands of who-knows-how-many people. H&M handled the frenzy with ease, releasing a statement to confirm that the photos were legitimate. The company said it was happy with the positive reactions to the photos, and it is looking forward to sharing more in the coming weeks.

Although Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing and H&M have been creating anticipation for the collection release with occasional teasers, like showing off looks from the collection on Kendall Jenner and Jourdan Dunn at the Billboard Music Awards, it seems that this accidental leak has caused more buzz than any intentional sneak preview.

As one Instagram user said in the comments section on Swartz Rees’s Sunday post, “It proved to be an amazing plot twist in what has become the most boring and longly drawn out launch ever! @hm take note! This is how you create hype.” Since media attention and excitement from fans is such a large part of special releases, Rousteing and H&M may just have to thank Swartz Rees and her lucky discovery.

As for the collection, shoppers can expect edgy statement pieces, like embellished dresses, furry jackets and bold jewelry, among other pieces. The collaboration ties the French house’s glamorous aesthetic with H&M’s ease and lower price points.

As with any designer collaboration, it is expected to sell out fast — people will surely line up around the block at stores across the nation and break the Internet to buy out the online goods. Now that we can see most of the clothes online through this leak, it’s time to make a shopping list.

Jackie Homan is a sophomore magazine journalism major. You can email her at jahoman@syr.edu or follow her @jackie_homan on Twitter.

Published on October 12, 2015 at 9:00 pm

Contact: jahoman@syr.edu