Rei Kawakubo and H&M team up in Tokyo store

The Harajuku girls and boys - were in fashion heaven. Their smiling faces suggested that it was definitely worth a three-day wait, even under soaking umbrellas, to snap up the fruits of H&M's collaboration with the cerebral Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons. And to be the first inside the fast fashion retailer's new 1,500 square-meter store in Tokyo's heartland of hip.

Savvy shoppers in the Harajuku district on Saturday snared boiled wool jackets, bifurcal pants, men's bias-cut shirts, polka dot bags, lace-up shoes or even the unisex fragrance - well ahead of the global H&M launch on Thursday.

Kawakubo's status as a fashion intellectual made this the most intriguing partnership since Karl Lagerfeld started the high/low love fest with H&M in 2004. And Margareta van den Bosch, H&M's creative adviser, was determined to reflect the Japanese cult designer's integrity, built over nearly 40 years since Comme des Garçons was founded in 1969 - and all at affordable prices.