Barmy for Balmain: H&M shoppers go crazy for French designer’s cut-price couture

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Olivier Rousteing, Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid attend the Balmain x H&M Collection launch event in New York on October 20. Photo: AP

Published: 10:15am, 6 Nov 2015Updated: 10:26am, 6 Nov 2015

The latest collaboration between a high-fashion designer and a low-price retailer produced long lines at H&M stores around the world, while online shoppers complained they couldn't get on the chain's website before most items from its new Balmain collection were sold out.

Shoppers waited for hours outside H&M stores in London, Sydney and San Francisco on Thursday, according to local news reports, as the chain began selling an assortment of dresses, purses and other items from its collaboration with Balmain, a high-end French fashion house.

People line up outside an H&M shop in downtown Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday waiting for the opening today when a new collection, made in collaboration with French fashion house Balmain, will be made available. Photo: EPA

By midday Pacific Time, the chain's website showed more than 65 items in the collection, from a US$649 beaded dress to a US$34.99 cotton T-shirt, were sold out. Only a “ribbed bandeau top” was still available online, at US$24.99 for either black or white versions.

Shoppers vented on social media, including Twitter and Facebook, where some gushed about the new offerings and others griped that H&M's website had stalled when they tried to visit. A Twitter account for H&M stores in the United Kingdom offered apologies, saying: “The interest for this launch has exceeded all collaborations and we're truly sorry for those not being able to shop.”

Ellie Goulding attends the Balmain x H&M Collection launch event at 23 Wall Street on Tuesday. Photo: AP

In an emailed statement, a spokesman for Hennes & Mauritz AB added: “In those markets that have launched the collection the major part of the items are sold out, but there can still be returns in the following days.”

The Swedish chain had heavily promoted its collaboration with Balmain and its 30-year-old creative director, Olivier Rousteing, whose designs have been worn by wealthy celebrities Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Considered a rising star in the fashion world, Rousteing was recently profiled by The New Yorker magazine and has more than 1.6 million followers on the photo-sharing site Instagram.