Monki-trippin'

Somehow not being able to find an excuse good enough, I still haven’t visited the new Monki store in Amsterdam. Open since August on Kalverstraat 176, the H&M’s shy child is slowly but surely coming our way. I was happy to find it in Stockholm in 2007 on Götgatan and wrote about it on this very blog in a plea to see the store somewhere near enough. Well, the time has come, and it only gets better because we’ll be blessed with a first Monki store here in Belgium in 2011 – that’s already next year! Time flies.

No, I can’t explain the Monki love in rational terms. The quality is mediocre, the interiors are like a bad acid trip and the store locations (apart from the aforementioned Götgatan) are appalling. Monki targets the young audience, but contrary to H&M’s Divided that makes clothes for adolescent emo-punks, Monki has a lot to say fashionwise. The designs are based on those trends that are circulating on the streets of Stockholm and Copenhagen, it’s ‘Scandi-cool’ as some glossy might put it. Monki makes the kind of pieces which do not need to be recycled for the next season because they are as cheap as they are on-trend.

Am I praising the throw-away fashion?

Not entirely. But I’m afraid I am given into the fashion-fixes at times, and Monki makes for the perfect partner in crime.