Elbows at the ready for H&M’s hottest designer range yet

AS I TUMBLED backwards on to the floor, my assailant — a smartly dressed woman in her late 30s — showed no remorse. But instead of lunging for my handbag, her target was the delicately embroidered cardigan I’d been holding just seconds earlier.

This was no inner-city mugging. In fact, I was in the usually humdrum surroundings of H&M in London’s Oxford Street.

Thanks to the launch of yet another hysteria-inducing designer collaboration ( the cardigan in question was from the Matthew Williamson for H&M range in 2009), at that moment the store more closely resembled a bunfight as women snatched and pushed in a bid to grab themselves a bargain.

And these scenes are about to be repeated. For on November 5, H&M launches its most hyped limited-edition designer collection yet — with luxury French fashion house Balmain, best known for its heavily embellished mini-dresses, Napoleon- esque military jackets and eye-watering price tags.

I will be sharpening my elbows at the front of the queue of women eager to get their hands on copies of dresses that usually retail for more than the deposit on a small London flat.

My wardrobe boasts at least one item from every designer collaboration H&M has done. In my quest, I’ve been shoved, elbowed and, during a particularly savage encounter at Roberto Cavalli for H&M, rammed by a pushchair laden with leopardprint (I dread to think whether there was a child under there!).

BUT, this time around, I will no longer be risking life and limb, thanks to a wellpoliced wristband system H&M introduced a few years ago, which allows shoppers to enter in small groups at set times, with ten minutes to grab as many clothes as they can.

H&M’s first collaboration — in 2004, with Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld — was something of a gamble, mainly because designer clobber had not been offered on the High Street before.

Although it is no longer the only High Street brand to do such collaborations, H& M’s annual partnership has become one of the biggest events in the fashion calendar, with designers such as Stella McCartney and Versace creating cut-price collections.

Certainly, the quality is far superior to H&M’s usual fare, boasting silk, tulle, leather, embellishment and embroidery — even if sizing can be a bit all over the place.

Balmain’s creative director, Olivier Rousteing, says he wanted to ‘push the boundaries of craftsmanship’ for his forthcoming collection.

While the prices aren’t a patch on the real thing (few pieces in the main collection retail below £1,000), the three-figure price tags on items such as the white embellished dress (£399.99) and the diamond- encrusted black top (£249.99) may still raise eyebrows among H&M’s bargain-loving clientele.

But I like to think of them as