Sound bizarre? I wasn’t the only one. Three blocks of us sat cheerily on that pavement, willing to suffer the cold for our cause, receiving umbrella’s and instant hand warming packs (surely one of the best inventions of the twenty first century), while commuters photographed, questioned and shook their heads in disbelief at us. Was it a protest? A queue for a soup kitchen? Or just a morning’s shopping at H&M?

Comme des Garcons, a revolutionary Japanese brand led by designer maverick Rei Kawakubo, usually price their lusted after trench coats at £1020, but today you could pick one up for a measly (erm..?) £99.99! Yes, the prices aren’t quite the usual H&M price tag, but compared to the full whack I didn’t hear many complaining. Vogue journalists, celebrities and fashion students alike were lured to the international high street favourite, who have been offering us proletariats the chance to bag designer gear since 2004, when Karl Lagerfeld (Chanel) sold his discount collection in a matter of hours. Following this, Stella McCartney, Roberto Cavailli and Viktor and Rolf were soon persuaded to design budget options of their main lines. The difference this time was that not only did Kawakubo design the limited edition collection, but Comme des Garcons also manufactured every piece, something its predecessors didn’t manage. The fabrics were high street quality, hence the lower prices, but it didn’t compromise the designs; Kawakubo has always favoured cheaper fabrics like polyester in her main line collections, meaning quality wasn’t compromised, and buying the cheap version was no longer the case.

Both designer and brand are particularly well known and loved by fashion insiders, but this is not the case for the general public. Even those without an interest in fashion will have heard of Chanel and Dior, but probably not Comme des Garcons. The truth is, the brand may be understated, but are in actual fact hugely influential, particularly to other designers. The brand’s debut show in Paris in 1981 showed monochromatic, asymmetric shapes, as Kawakubo was the first designer to show women in head-to-toe black. Kawakubo takes a particularly artistic approach to fashion design and dismisses trends and muses, instead designing collections around how she feels, hence why Comme always has a completely original look unlike others on the runway; also a reason why the brand is not constantly in Vogue, it doesn’t fit in with other looks so is hard to incorporate. Despite this, Comme always include details which make clothes instantly recognisable; simplicity of both palette and design, yet with distorted silhouette and texture.

The H&M collection was the most similar to main line collection of all the designer collaborations so far. It really is difficult to distinguish between the high street version and the real thing. The women’s collection showed lots of blouses, either ruffle-sleeved with Peter Pan collars, or polka dotted, also evident on scarves, wallets and Men’s shirts. Deconstruction was the key theme within jackets, skirts and culottes, with the most outlandish piece being heavily dropped-crotch trousers. Fabrics were mainly polyester, cotton and wool, and my favourite was the men’s scarves - inches thick of luxe wollen jumper to swathe in. Most desirable was a gothic dress coat at £200, of which just a small number were sold at only the Regent Street store (in the UK the collection was only available throughout London). These were all snapped up at the preview by celebrities and fashion editors... Oh and the man who got away with grabbing the rest and selling them on EBay at £800 a pop. At that price I’m sure he’s not too bothered about the, shall we say ‘bitter’, comments splashed all over the internet...