H&M Celebrates Its New Upper East Side Home With a Colorful Fête

Truthfully, we haven't stepped foot inside an H&M (too crowded, too many bad impulse purchases) or on the Upper East Side in a while. But when H&M opened up a new two-story shopping palace on Lexington and 86th, we dragged ourselves, tired heels and all, up to the double-decker space. And we weren't the only ones who made the migration: PAPER's Mickey Boardman, Estelle, Andre J (of bearded, cross-dressing French Vogue cover notoriety), and a slew of editors all showed up to have a few drinks (okay, or many), munch on dinner (mini lemon meringue tartlets, potato pancakes with goat cheese), and stash away the colorful condoms (it was the Fashion Against AIDs event, after all) in their murses/purses for, uh, later. There were also party-goers who tottered around in gold-plated Balenciaga tights and even a kimono get-up. Was it a costume party? Did we miss the memo? We started to get a little self-conscious. But there's nothing like a little discounted, slightly buzzed shopping to whisk your worries away. Wait, what did we say about bad impulse purchases, again?