Hysteria at Versace for H&M launch

Donatella Versace welcomed "hysterical" fans at the launch of the Versace for H&M line in London's Regent Street.

The designer wore a pink studded dress and black leather studded trench coat, both from the new collection.

Many members of the public had spent the night camped outside on the footpath to make sure they were first in the queue to get their hands on the affordable designer garb.

The collection officially launched in the UK at 9am on Thursday morning.

"The crowd is getting hysterical. We're crammed against the shop window alongside bloggers!" reported the UK version of Grazia magazine.

Inside the store sales assistants attempted to control the public by organising them into groups and allocating them ten minute shopping slots.

The highly-anticipated collection is the eighth collaboration H&M have done with a designer label. Their first was with Karl Lagerfeld in 2004.

There has been a huge amount of hype surrounding the new high street partnership, fashionistas Blake Lively, Jessica Alba and Emma Roberts have all admitted that they are eager to wear pieces from the line.

In Dubai and Beijing, where 9am had come and gone, it was reported that H&M stores had sold out of the entire collection in under 30 minutes. Many of the pieces popped up on auction website eBay moments later.

H&M's own website crashed under the amount of traffic it was receiving. Millions of shoppers were frantically logging on to try and buy up pieces quickly. A spokesperson for the store took to Twitter to apologise for the technical difficulties they were experiencing.

- AAP