If you were on Bloor Street last night and heard pulsing club beats, they were coming not from some hipster club but from the giant H&M store. A party called ‘Wear White 4 Windfall’ was what caused all the hooplah. Guests were asked to wear white (few actually complied) and to take advantage of the whole store being 15 per cent off (everyone complied). In addition, 15 per cent of all sales were donated to Windfall.
But no party is a real party unless attended by a few fabulous people. The guest list included Toronto designer Philip Sparks, MuchMusic Vjs Sarah Taylor and Liz Trinnear, numerous fashion bloggers (including yours truly) and a couple local models. Shmoozing, boozing and shopping took place on every one of the store’s three floors. Hundreds of people had to squeeze their way past racks upon racks of new clothes while trying to balance a white wine in one hand and dozens of hangers in the other.
But if you think this was just a run-of-the-mill shopping party, think again. Fashion experts were on hand all night to provide shoppers with free styling advice. Judging by the eclectic clash of clothing though, not many people needed advice. Fur stoles, acid washed jeans, undercuts and even a piece from the Proenza Schouler runway adorned the shoppers and made H&M the place to be on Wednesday night.
Windfall is an organization founded in 1991 and is all about clothing for those in need. They have an agreement with H&M where the store lets them know when they have bundles of clothes that they can no longer sell and Windfall picks it up for free and distributes it to people in the city. They supply over 64,000 people with clothes a year; one third of that number being children. When I asked who constitutes as ‘in need’, Windfall’s marketing manager Alessia Pugliese said one example is children who have left their homes and possessions because of abuse and are living in shelters.
Check them out at http://www.windfallbasics.com/.
~ Bianca T. – www.beeisthenewblog.com
~ Photos by Kira Crugnale