High-street highs: 10 years of H&M designer collaborations

In November 2004, Karl Lagerfeld teamed up with H&M to sell cut-price versions of his clothes and the designer/high street collaboration was born. In the decade since, the Guardians fashion team has been at the sharp-elbowed cutting edge of high-octane high-street shopping. Here are their tips for shopping designer collaborations like a pro

Designer collaborations on the high street have been part of my professional life for a decade now. Their timings and life cycle from rumour and announcement through to the 9am scrum and the inevitable eBay flipping are as much a part of fashions calendar as the twice-yearly catwalk schedule. Inevitably the phenomenon has spilled over into the personal too. As someone who has observed and reported on them at close quarters, my wardrobe is littered with the spoils of reporting from the doorstep of H&M from the Stella McCartney collaboration in 2005 through to Isabel Marant last November. (I confess that the original Karl Lagerfeld one with H&M back in 2004 perturbed me too much to make a purchase.)