Preening With Peacocks in the Matthew Williamson Madness

I came, I saw, I conquered! Well, sort of. Ever since I read about all of the goodies one of mystyle's featured bloggers snagged at the debut of Matthew Williamson's line for H&M—part one—I've been clamoring for a piece of the sartorial action. You see, I've adored the designer ever since I caught one of his shows during Fashion Week in New York a few years ago. The colors! The textures! The peacocks!

So you can imagine just how thrilled I was to learn that Williamson was debuting the second part of his collection today! Now, I'm not the waiting-on-line type, but I found myself trotting over to the Beverly Center this morning determined to land the dress you see here.

A stream of woman was pouring into the shop when I arrived exactly at 10 a.m. The excitement was palpable, audible even. Although a sales clerk explained the alarms were sounding because folks were standing too close to the door with unpaid-for merchandise, I seriously suspect they set them off to amp up the frenzy even more. And this wasn't the only tactic I observed:

Sales clerks kept retreating into a back room to retrieve piles of clothes to display on the racks. We panted after them like dogs, eager to check out the next morsel. Then after ravaging the stash, we'd pause oh-so-briefly as if to say, "Can you believe this? Who are these insane women who've gone so ga-ga over Matthew Williamson?" No one dared look in the mirror.

In the end, I didn't get the dress: the only ones left were too small. (Everything sold out in minutes.) I did walk away with a tank in the same print (yes, peacocks!), plus this beachy number that I don't think is really me. But neither is descending on a store when it first opens—and both are wildly crazy and fun.