The Universe Has Gifted Us With 99 Leaked Images Of Balmain For H&M

What lengths will people go to for a glimpse of a massive designer collaboration? Well, hacking isn't out of the question, evidently. Olivier Rousteing's master plan of dropping only the most elusive nuggets to tease Balmain's upcoming collaboration with H&M hit a slight road block. The Cut reports that a woman in Chicago posted 99 images to Instagram that she alleges belong to the buzzy collection, which will hit stores on November 5. Kathryn Swartz Rees first announced her feat on Twitter Tuesday evening, tagging the message with #HMBALMAINNATION. How did a Midwest-based writer-editor arrive upon this fast-fashion Holy Grail, you might be wondering? She simply "happened to search at the right time using the right parameters," She told The Cut. According to Swartz Rees, she was able to pull images of the collection right from H&M's site because Google had supposedly indexed the URL, which allowed her to retrieve the images with a well-timed Google sweep. This page she allegedly found them on has since been taken down. Previously, we've only seen select Balmain for H&M pieces sported by members of Rousteing's #BalmainArmy on the red carpet and in the just-released ad campaign (with a few European editorials here and there to appease us along the way). However, this leak is the first comprehensive look at the whole collection — women's and men's apparel, shoes, and accessories. And the pictures Swartz Rees posted look very legit. On top of the beaded blazer and similarly-embellished pieces we’ve already seen on Kendall Jenner and the like, there's rich velvet, satin-look fabric, and elaborate braiding and other similar attention to detail we've come to expect from Rousteing's Balmain. Swartz Rees told The Cut that the there are additional colorways for certain items that didn't even make it onto her Instagram. We're less than a month way from the official launch — and the anticipation just got so much more real. We have reached out to H&M for comment, and will update when we hear back.