File this under least shocking news of the day: The Balmain x H&M collection release was insane.
Olivier Rousteing's capsule collection hit stores around the world Thursday. Video captured in Paris -- Rousteing's home city -- shows shoppers rushing into the store and scrambling for the goods.
Police were present on London's Regent Street to keep the crowd under control, but scuffles still broke out. One person on line told the New York Times the situation was getting "dangerous" because of a group of twenty-something men.
“They get in first, buy up all the product, then flog it for five times the price on eBay,” student Ryan Fong told the Times. “They are scary men, and I don’t want to get in their way.”
Hundreds lined up at H&Ms across New York City, leaving stores depleted of merchandise, according to Racked New York.
In Asia, which had the first store openings, at least one particularly eager person camped out for more than 50 hours in front of the Singapore store, Today reported. He said he was willing to wait for the low prices of the designer collection.
Stores around the globe sold out of the line in mere hours, and H&M's website crashed with the error message: "We have a lot of visitors on the site right now. This is due to the high level of interest in our latest collection."
H&M spokesperson Hacan Andersson told The Huffington Post in an email Thursday: "The interest for this launch has exceeded all previous collaborations. Many customers started to line up early in all markets to be able to shop from the collection. In those markets that have launched the collection the major part of the items are sold out, but there can still be returns in the following days."
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