They said/We said: Leigh Lezark is the next H&M collaborator, or should we say curator

Date August 18, 2011

H&M has announced it will join forces with downtown mistress Leigh Lezark for the launch of an upcoming shop-in-shop inside London department store Selfridges. Instead of commissioning the Misshapes DJ/model to design a collection, though, the Swedish retailer has asked her to curate the collections inside their new location. If you’re wondering what exactly “curating” entails in this case, don’t feel lonely, because so are we. From what we can gather, Lezark will be selecting some of her favourite pieces from the collection as well as of course making a personal appearance when the shop opens its doors next Thursday.

The concept behind the shop-in-shop is to offer customers exclusive and limited-edition items with noteworthy curators stopping by regularly. It seems a little bit out of character for H&M, a company usually committed to bringing affordable goods to the masses on a global scale, to rent out space in a high-end department store and stock it with pieces of limited availability.

Still, the opening comes at a significant moment in British fashion. It seems that everyone’s eyes have been on London this year because of style icons such as the two Kates (Moss and Middleton) and Alexander McQueen. An American analytics group has just named the city this year’s number-one fashion capital based on web activity. If you also take into account the increasing number of promising young designers that it keeps on turning out, it’s easy to see why H&M would choose London as the setting for a more exclusive project.

WHAT THEY SAID…

Leigh Lezark: “My philosophy on both beauty and fashion is to be yourself and find your own style, so for me the new edited down H&M at Selfridges is an ideal shopping destination. The curated pieces are, I feel, modern classics everyone should have in their wardrobe – and I have tried to throw in some colour too!” [Vogue UK]

Fashionista: “The dj-turned-model-turned-?? has some pretty big shoes to fill, following Lanvin, Versace and Karl Lagerfeld.” [Fashionista]

Elle: “You’re more likely to see Lezark wearing head-to-toe Valli or Chanel, but she’s had a long relationship with H&M.” [Elle]

WHAT WE SAID…

Rani Sheen, features director: “Leigh Lezark has presumably picked up a thing or two by sitting in the front row of every fashion show ever (of the past, what, decade?), so it’s fair to say she can pluck the gems out of an H&M collection for this new shop-in-shop. That said, it is strange to think of an H&M concession in glossy Selfridges—how far the fast fashion has come.”