H&M 'overwhelmed' by Versace demand

Even if you weren’t one of the thousands of shoppers queuing outside H&M stores worldwide, odds are strong that you’ve read about it. Odds are even stronger that you’ve had that leopard-sunset motif burnt into your memory for all of time.

The bold designs proved so alluring at the tills that a number of styles have already sold out.

‘We are overwhelmed by the reception from our customers for the launch of Versace for H&M,’ a spokesperson for the retailer said.

The press office told us that most of the menswear collection has been snapped up, with leather studded pieces and the velvet bomber jacket the first items to fly off the rails.

For women, the most-wanted styles were the leather studded dress, jackets and trench. Those pieces, plus the chainmail dresses, studded silk dresses and black dresses with gold buttons (in strappy and cap-sleeved styles), are gone.

The collection stirred online shopping appetites as well. H&M’s UK e-commerce site crashed moments after the collection launched online yesterday morning, leading H&M to tweet, ‘Followers, we’re sorry about the technical problems in our shop online markets – we’re working hard to solve them!’

They followed up later with, ‘H&M’s really sorry for any inconvenience during today’s launch of #versaceforhm. We’ll look into how we can improve in the future.’

Into the breach stepped the eBay entrepreneurs. By Friday morning, there were nearly 1,500 eBay listings for clothing and accessories from the collection, often at vastly inflated prices. Bidding on one magenta silk dress with gold studs, originally priced £129.99, had reached £170 with four days of auction time remaining. That black silk dress with the shoulder cut-outs cost £79.99 in-store, but eBay bidding had reached £180 on one garment.

We’re not sure what’s more outrageous—sleeping on the pavements outside a store overnight, or the bids some re-sellers are attracting.