ELLE Insider x H&M: Style Awards Pre-party

I was invited to the ELLE Insider x H&M: Style Awards Pre-party – this happened because I’m subscribed to the ELLE Magazines - you can enter yourself into multiple events which they then choose and invite people to. Moving on to the event.

I took my friend, Thuy-Mai with me and there wasn’t really a dress code so I had a mental breakdown trying to work out what to wear, bearing in mind I also had to go into university that day – it was hectic. I eventually decided to wear a flannel shirt paired with body-con skirt and my lovely oxblood boots. I have a picture somewhere but unfortunately the lighting was horrendous, but I will link in the websites to wear you can get the same/similar clothing.

I have never been to the 4^th Floor of H&M because I pretty much avoid that particular H&M whenever I go Oxford Street shopping – it’s too big for me, I get overwhelmed by the variety of products and then overspend (girl problems). You go up all the elevators – I absolutely hate how they have an elevator to go up and one side and then to go higher you have to go all the way around to the other side, this is probably a marketing strategy to lure you to buy all the products on the floor…but I just get really annoyed because I’m unbelievably lazy. People were allowed to go in at 18:30 - there was a bouncer and a couple of employees checking tickets and it looked so extravagant.

As you go up the elevator you can see that on either side there are waitresses ready to give you, your Prosecco or Apple Juice - after you pick up your drink, on the left was an illustrator drawing out each and every person’s outfit. I was sad because the queue for the illustrator had built up around the entire floor. I didn’t want to miss out because of one thing so I unfortunately had to give this one up (forever weeping).

In front of the illustrator were the screen-printed bags, which were being made on the go. They weren’t that popular – it was a cotton tote on which they printed either a green paper airplane or black circles, it was quite random and I don’t think I saw anyone pick one up. Along the side they had a nail bar with a hair stylist. It was basically a mini beauty salon in the corner, which was quite cute and the nail designs were really well done but a bit too cramped because they had all three activities within three or four metres of each other.

I’m debating between whether or not I liked the food or the shopping aspect. There were a few waitresses walking each with different types of food ranging from canapés to macarons. I’m assuming the food was based on French cuisine as well as seafood – almost everything had prawn in it, which I’m not complaining about because I love seafood. The portions were all quite small but because of this I was able to try different types as opposed to scoffing down one massive thing (I am now a major fan of macarons).

At around 19:00, the employees started telling everyone to gather by Florrie’s stage – I had never heard of her before so I did go on her website to listen to her songs – honestly I didn’t even get round to listening to any of them but she literally blew me away on the night. You could see that she loved what she was doing (so did her band at the back!) and she was awesome so take a look at her songs - I can’t find the ones that she sang on the night, possibly because they’re not officially released yet.

After the performance was finished you could go back to the stalls or go back to shopping – on the fourth floor they had a massive lingerie section to one side, quite a selection of socks and tights, nightwear and then the rest were clothes. The massive plus about the event was the 20% of everything in the entire store however I didn’t visit the four floors beneath me because I picked up quite a lot on the floor I was already on (which I showed you in the post before).

We left at around 20:30 because it was a bus strike on the 5^th (TFL!), so the journey home was more of a trek home as opposed to the usual calm, relaxing, quick ride. That is basically it, I came home ditched my shopping on the floor, washed my hair and went straight to bed. So the morning after was no different to waking up in a pigsty.

I’m really glad I was able to go to such an event – I probably won’t be invited to another one of those for a very long time unless I’m just really lucky. If anyone does want to have the opportunity of being invited go ahead and join me, become an ELLE Insider.