style spectacle: First Look: Trench (Jean Paul Gaultier for Target)

JPG released his much-anticipated line for Target on Sunday. Though known to be the Sabbath in some religions, true fashionistas did not rest on this holy day. I got to the Brooklyn location at 8:05a, 5 mins after opening, and it was already a semi-mad house. My fellow dedicated and experienced shopper, Jane, showed me the ropes in surviving the first day of a Target designer collection release. Carts and carts filled by possessed eBay auctioneers. I got yelled at by a crazy lady, “Watch out, DUDE!” With a lot of help from Jane’s observant eye and Kenya-Olympian-like reflexes, I scored the trench in small, medium and large at $59.99 each. By the time we left at 9a, they were sold out. I know what you’re thinking. What the hell? This is a menswear blog and you’re writing about a women’s coat. Calm down. If you’re slim and sometimes have issues fitting into even the smallest of sizes at H&M, you can make pieces like this masculine and ultimately redefine unisex in your personal style. It’s all in the styling and, most importantly, the confidence. Additionally, to prove how psycho people are when it comes to Target designer collections, see the below review from Target.com:

I actually got one of these in my shopping cart online, entered my credit card info, and in between, it was sold to someone else and by the time I went to confirm my information, a few seconds later, it showed as out of stock, and I could not buy it. I am so disgusted with Target!! I stayed up half the night to order online, and feel robbed of something I really wanted to buy. If Target is going to seek that much press coverage for these lines, they should make sure they can stock enough to deliver to loyal customers like me. Another customer suggested a policy on designer lines limiting purchase amounts so unscrupulous people can't buy them all up and then sell them for more than twice the price. Target really needs to implement such a policy to ensure fairness to all its customers. And our local store only stocked a few of the items from the JPG line - not the trench - so no chance of buying on site, either! Ridiculous!

Too bad, so sad. On to the money shots: