Most flagship items from Stella McCartney’s H&M collaboration sold out within two hours of opening at H&M’s College Green location on Thursday - the only Irish store stocking the collection.
Ann-Marie Mitchell from Limerick happened to be in Dublin on a business trip, which she turned into a shopping one too.
“I took the opportunity. The Stella McCartney range is launching here in the Dublin branch so I decided I’d take a quick look en route,” Mitchell said.
Part of the attraction of the designer and high-street collaboration according to Mitchell is the “great opportunity” to secure a designer item at a much lower price point.
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Mitchell, who was in the queue waiting to get into the College Green shop, said she preferred to shop in person where possible.
“It’s great to come into the store because I am not really a typical online shopper. I prefer to touch and feel the items and try things on. It would be great if it came to a few more stores in Ireland,” she said.
The two items Mitchell was eyeing up were the small tote bag (€79.99) and the mesh top with a cherry design on it (€39.99), which she described as “something that you would get great wear out of, as opposed to once in a lifetime wear”.
Shoppers in the queue were given wrist bands which were marked upon entry and gave customers access to a cordoned-off area where the collection was stocked.
Some in the queue outside were disappointed that not every item from the collection would be available in store, with three women shopping online while they were queueing in an effort to get their hands on the coveted large red tote bag.
Laura Deering, store manager for the College Green H&M, said that there has been “huge interest” in the launch of the collection.
“Over the last number of weeks there has been a lot of excitement over the build up to today,” Deering said, adding that some people had been queueing from as early as 6am. “It’s very exclusive as well.”
Deering believes that shoppers’ excitement is also fuelled by the fact that it has been three years since the shop last had a designer collaboration – the 2023 Rabanne collection.
The H&M Stella McCartney collection is almost entirely sold out to Irish shoppers online, with some resellers on Vinted already advertising items at triple the original retail price, such as the red mesh clutch which retailed at €49.99 being advertised for €150.
