a blog for people with pale skin and red hair

The Saga of the H&M skirt

H&M white full skirt and mint top

a blog for people with pale skin and red hairFirst of all, I have to ask you to please excuse the state of my hair in these photos. One of the fun (by which I mean “not even remotely fun” ) things about living in Scotland is that even when it’s sunny and warm out, there’s almost always a stiff breeze, too. Where we live, it’s windy almost all the time, so no matter how carefully I style my hair, the second I step out of the door I may as well not have bothered. I refuse to complain about it (on this occasion, anyway), though, because YAY, SPRING! Do you SEE that blue sky, people? Seriously, it can be as windy as it wants, if it just stays sunny

With that out of the way: remember my yellow H&M skirt, which I love beyond reason? This is its twin. This skirt did not come into my possession willingly, though. Oh no. In fact, buying this skirt felt a bit like one of those quests that knights of yore might have to undertake in order to win their lady, except in this case the “knight” was me and the “lady” was an H&M skirt. I KNOW, people. I know.

It should all have been so easy, too. I mean, I ordered the skirt the second it appeared on the H&M website. I wear the yellow one to death, and I thought the white one would be perfect for summer, so I didn’t even bother with my usual “waiting until it goes out of stock” trick. Nope, that skirt was in my basket within seconds of me laying eyes on it, and then, a few minutes later it was joined by a couple of other little basics, like, for instance, a pair of knickers. Well, they were there, I was placing an order anyway…

“This skirt will be my new favourite thing!” I told Rubin, who is the only person who will listen to me most of the time. “It’ll go with every single pair of shoes I own! AND every single top!” And then I sat back to await the arrival of my prechus skirt.

Well, I waited. And I waited. Then I waited a little more. Eventually it occurred to me that rather than doing all the waiting, I should maybe log into my H&M account and see if there was some kind of problem which was causing the delay. So I did. And there was. The problem was the knickers. You see, not long after I added them to my order they’d gone out of stock, and now H&M, in their infinite wisdom, had decided to put a hold on my order while they ran up some new ones.

The skirt, meanwhile, had sold out. I mean, OF COURSE it had.

“Well… that’s OK,” I said doubtfully. “I placed my order BEFORE it sold out, so obviously H&M will have reserved one for me.”

Yeah, dream on, Amber. A few days later my parcel arrived. It contained one pair of knickers, and… that was it. JUST the knickers. No skirt. “Sorry!” said the cheerful little note inside the parcel, “But you didn’t seriously think we’d make this easy on you, did you? Enjoy your new knickers! Also your endless search for that skirt you’ve based your entire summer wardrobe around!”

Well. At this point, a more sensible woman would have simply given up, and accepted that it just wasn’t meant to be between her and the skirt. I may be many things, however, but I am not a sensible woman, so instead, I decided to dedicate my life to refreshing the H&M website, in the hope that the skirt would come back into stock. And eventually it did… two sizes larger than the one I needed. Then one size larger than the one I needed. Then finally, FINALLY… someone returned one in my size, and my quest was over.

The lesson? It pays to be persistent. Also to be a little bit crazy.

My shoes, meanwhile, were a gift from the very kind people at MyVoucherCodes.co.uk , and I just couldn’t resist pairing them with a matching mint green sweater, even although I know my fashion blogger card will probably be revoked for such shameless matchy-matchiness. These are almost sold-out at Office, and I’d loved them from the moment I saw them, so I was very grateful to MyVoucherCodes for stepping in and saving me from ANOTHER endless quest: I just don’t think I could’ve gone through another one so soon.

Mind you, I DID get a pair knickers out of the whole “skirt” situation, so every cloud, people, every cloud…

pale skin and red hair

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COMMENTS
  • oh wow that skirt…. You have just burdened me with the quest, although I doubt they would ship to Australia, even if they had it still in stock, I’m still going to check, right after this comment…

    You look beautiful like always! xx

    April 8, 2013
  • There is an H&M store opening close to where I live this summer, I CANNOT WAIT! You always have great stuff from there and last I looked, I couldn’t order online. Love this skirt, persistence isn’t a bad thing… nor is that little bit of crazy! 😉

    April 8, 2013
  • I’m glad the saga had a happy ending. And sun! I was able to go out yesterday without tights on – it was amazing!

    April 8, 2013
  • The H&M website is total pants, I remember having a real moment with it when the H&M x Lanvin collection was released and all I wanted to do was pay for my items and it wouldn’t met hit the pay button or something. It was a really frustrating moment, which has resulted in me not returning to the website since. Good to hear you got your skirt though, persistence certainly does pay off!

    April 8, 2013
  • I love the skirt – it is beautiful! And the shoes are gorgeous as well. I completely agree about online shopping with H&M – you never know what you’re going to get in your parcel, or often, not get! Still, at least there’s a happy ending here! x

    April 8, 2013
  • Well done for persevering and saving your damsel-in-distress skirt; you incredibly well dressed knight, you. Very glad this quest had a happy ending. x

    April 8, 2013
  • Omg this outfit is so beautiful!!!
    You look stunning, and the photos are amazing!
    xo
    Ylenia
    Ambitieuse.net

    April 8, 2013
  • Amber,
    I LOVE your new outfit! I loved your yellow skirt with the matching yellow suede pumps, but I think the mint green may be even better. It is so spring-y! Even with all the wind, your hair looks lovely:)

    April 9, 2013
  • Love the mint combo – it looks beautiful AND funky despite being matching (actually I am a firm believer in matching, it can really pull an outfit together and show a figure off, and anyway you got bonus points for the mix of textures.
    I have signed up for the voucher site – thanks for the tip

    April 9, 2013
  • Amber, H & M’s prettiest pin-up girl! I admit, every time I go to H & M, I leave feeling under whelmed. And usually empty handed. I think it might be that the stores are jam packed with such a range of quality in the clothing. Example being my most recent visit…jeans where the side seams were so skewed, the inner leg seam was practically in the middle of the front of the jean. That would drive me crazy, which on the plus side would better prepare me should I desire to buy an out-of-stock item from an online shopping resource. 🙂 Having rambled on about all that, this skirt is ever so beautiful! I love the drape and the fabric choice.

    And woot, woot on the sunny skies!

    Sue xo

    April 9, 2013
  • Well, this is weird. A few of my latest purchases include that exact H&M skirt and the exact same mint Office bow pumps. o.Ô – The process of buying both was fortunately not remotely as dreadful as it was for you though. I think I was even able to score a discount on both items, 25% on the skirt and 20% for the pumps. Woohoo! 😉

    You look lovely in these photos. And the outfit is great, too. Who cares if it’s too matchy-matchy. And yay for sun! 🙂

    ~ Irina

    April 10, 2013
  • I’ve just discovered your blog and I already think I love you!
    I love you, your style, your shoes, your full skirts, your hair colour and many other things :-*

    Virna
    My blog: OGNIRICCIOUNCAPRICCIO
    Follow me on FACEBOOK / Twitter / Tumblr / Bloglovin’

    April 12, 2013
  • Kisses from Glasgow 🙂

    April 14, 2013
  • Cottoncandydiva

    REPLY

    I wanted the knee length version of this skirt after I saw an Australian blogger wearing it! It’s disappeared of the site so I’m worried that I will just gave to accept that it won’t be mine…the first and only H&M store opened in Australia this year, I wan to go and see if they have any left in store, but I don’t like my chances 🙁

    Love your style by the way, those shoes are so cute!

    May 5, 2014
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