Fauna Lou

Ahhh! H&M has finally launched in Perth! It was only a year and a half ago that H&M came to Australia and settled its first store in Melbourne, before opening stores in Sydney and Brisbane. To say that people were excited for it to come over to the west coast would be an understatement. Perth's H&M opened its doors at 9am, but people had been queueing up since 6am, taking up most of the floor space available in that section of the shopping centre.

What's really lucky for me is that specific shopping centre that houses H&M just so happens to be right outside the train station I get off at for uni. Well, lucky for me - not so lucky for my wallet.

I invited an old friend that I'd be catching up with lately to the opening of the store, who gladly accepted, and we decided to leave at nine. Neither of us were particularly interested in queueing up at six in the morning. Especially not me, with my awful sleeping schedule, haha. My gran had offered to lend me her car for the day, but as we wanted to head into the city for another event (which was a total flop, but we got a free cinnamon scroll, so who's the winner here?), I thought public transport was a better option. I am so glad I did, as anyone who caught public transport received a $10 voucher to spend at H&M!

Once we queued up...

We received a free goodie bag! You may know that I love tote bags and use them for everything, so this was a happy addition to my bag family. Each one contained a bottle of water, a little pouch-like bag, and an umbrella. The last item was a bit of an odd one, but hey - free stuff, right?

The day was off to a great start. We had a DJ rocking some tunes nearby as we waited to get in, and it actually didn't take too long in the line. I reckon it only took twenty minutes at most, but it went pretty quickly. Before we knew it we were in!

There were some ridiculously good deals. I'm talking $2.95 tops. Seriously. Everything was very reasonably priced, and I managed to pick up a couple of items (cheeky spend) for a decent amount. They were just basics, and in all honesty I could have spent a lot of money there, but I controlled myself. Mainly because I don't have money to spend.

It was really nice to catch up with my friend too, even if it was so loud we could hardly hear each other. In fact, more than once I actually lost her in the crowd and had to look around for a minute before I found her again. It was ridiculously packed.

But that's okay.

The store is actually double-levelled, with menswear and childrenswear up the top, and womenswear and accessories down the bottom. It really had everything - jewellery, bags, swimsuits, workout gear, business wear, casual wear, shoes, underwear, the list goes on. Once I actually get a job I'm definitely going to have to go back because there was such a wide variety of things available for such great prices.

The line to pay for your items was literally almost as long as the line to get into the store. Some people had really gone crazy with their spending. I'm talking a full shopping bag full of stuff! I only went away with a striped tee (gotta love stripes) and a scarlet cardigan, but I was very happy with that. My friend bought the cutest phone cover, which had little cats ears on it and said 'meow' on the back. I was very tempted to pick one up myself!

Waiting in line ... to pay

All in all, I think it was a lovely opening, and a certainly very successful one for H&M. I also think it would be great for the surrounding businesses, as there were a couple of cafes handing out free mini drinks and little chocolates. I would've had one but I'm a poor little soy drinker. :(

I would definitely recommend you checking out H&M if you can! It's currently located in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and now Perth. All the addresses are available on their website.

And if you go - happy shopping!

xx Silje

PS. I am not sponsored to publish this post, all of this is just my opinion (even though it sounds otherwise).