Photo: Hiroki Blue

High street Swedish giant H&M created a retail frenzy in Tokyo this November, despite economic woes. The news reported insane queues and disappointed shoppers who couldn’t find their sizes despite waiting for hours.

Photo: kuschti

The lines at the Ginza store looked scary, so I decided to wait till the hype died down a little.

Photo: Guy Flaneur

But there were more crowds at the second opening in Harajuku – check out a short video about it here. Some of my fashionista friends went crazy over the Comme de Garcons/H&M collection and were determined to get at least one piece. Apparently, they look a lot more wearable than the ads make them out to be.

Photo: tokyofashion

It takes about an hour and a half to try something on in the dressing room and another hour or so to pay for your goodies, so a trip to H&M would be a whole-day affair.

Does this sound familiar? Krispy Kreme gave birth to impossibly long queues for their fabled double-glazed donuts — for a year.

Photo: joellymo

Anyway, this is indeed a breath of fresh air in the fashion scene and would make staples, like Zara, Gap, Uniqlo, sweat under the collar a bit.