Yesterday...as I window shopped and veered between imminent hypothermia (outside) and heatstroke (once inside the stores)...I spotted racks of the H&M/Lanvin collaboration lurking just inside the doors of my local H&M. Including...deep breath...the over-the-top tulle number which (up until that moment) I'd believed to be completely sold out (unless I'd wanted to pay an eBay shark's mortgage for the next couple of months). Yet, there it was...ten or so of the crimson version...and an equal number of the dark gray. Naturally, I had to try it...

Dear readers...it was like the sugar plum fairy had exploded. Acres of cheap tulle (the kind that makes you wary of going within 6 feet of an open flame)...a dress that photographs beautifully (you'll see that it even looks good in my iffy iPhone photos) yet looks disturbingly cheap in real life...one of those purchases that, at $249 plus tax, would be regretted almost immediately and spend the rest of its life taking up space in your closet as a reminder of "bad purchases of Christmas past".