CHAIN GANG: Today Is COS Day

It has been month of anticipation, but H&M's most sophisticated and upscale offshoot COS is finally opening its doors today at noon.
Unfortunately, the glittery launch festivities that we here in New York City would normally feel entitled to got bogarted by Los Angeles. How dare anyone want to launch a new fashion-forward chain in a city full of gleaming starlets who practically make a second career of borrowing cute outfits to be photographed in at parties? Anyway, COS has been a little more low key about promotion surrounding the opening of its second U. S. store, but we still expect that it will be attracting crowds through the weekend. It is Holiday shopping season after all, and COS is new and exclusive enough to still have the cachet of scarcity despite its sub-luxury pricing. Remember how we used to be able to impress our less well-informed friends in other cities with our special but cheap-as-hell things from that little known Japanese chain Uniqlo?
Good times...
Well, COS will be like that for just a little while, but once its sleek, minimalist style proliferates, as we hear it is poised to in short order, we will see just how resilient its prestige is in the face of replication.

COS at 129 Spring Street opens today at 12 PM in SoHo.