Stellamania!
Women do battle as star designer’s cut- price clothes hit the High Street
LEAVING her Mayfair boutique laden with shopping bags would set you back thousands.
But yesterday Stella McCartney fans had the chance to buy outfits from her latest collection at High Street prices.
Unfortunately, they had to brave High Street mayhem to do it.
The arrival of the designer’s one- off collection for fashion chain H&M saw chaotic scenes as women battled to get their hands on a £115 wool trouser suit or a £34.99 silk camisole.
Shoppers started queueing outside H&M’s flagship store in Oxford Circus from 6.30am.
At 9am the doors opened and within 20 minutes every item was sold out. Four deliveries later, demand was still outstripping supply.
One security guard told how he saw a baby knocked out of its pram as its mother rifled through the racks.
‘The woman, who was about 35, just left the pram in the middle of the aisle and went off rummaging through the clothes rails.
‘There was so many people crowding in, the pram was knocked over and the baby fell out on to the floor where people were stepping over it. Another mother nearby rushed over to rescue the baby and held it up in the air and shouted, “Whose baby is this?” It was absolutely sickening.’
There were violent scenes in Sweden, where the H&M brand started in 1947, with several women injured as they fought to get the clothes, some simply tearing them off the mannequins.
Back in London, one senior shop assistant said: ‘The customers had been queuing up for hours in the morning and when we finally let them in it
ing a one- off was mayhem.
H& M, which
‘ The collection had been
across Britain. placed on the lower- ground
Sally Jones, 20, from London, floor in a designated area but
who was at the Oxford Circus we had to spread it out in the
store yesterday, said: ‘There is interests of staff safety.
no way most people in here
‘The customers kept streaming in, it was incredible.’
Paul McCartney’s daughter, who designed for Chloe before establishing her own label, follows Karl Lagerfeld in design- collection for has 96 stores could ever afford to buy Stella McCartney’s real designer clothes.
‘ Some could have been more polite but they don’t really care. They just want to get their hands on some nice clothes.’ An H&M spokesman said: ‘We are really, really pleased with the amount of interest that there has been in the Stella McCartney collection.’
e.cook@dailymail