Fashion fans around the globe braved long lines and throngs of people for a shot at grabbing pieces from H&M's much awaited collaboration with French fashion house Balmain, which released today.

The Swedish fast fashion giant's annual designer team-up has become one of the fashion calendar's most awaited events, with scores of fashionistas flocking to H&M stores around the globe to get their hands on high fashion inspired garments at high street prices.

The Daily Telegraph broke down the scene in Sydney, which was one of the first locations where the collection went live.

'Determined to avoid disappointment, customers braved soaking rain and lined up outside the Pitt St Mall shop for more than 24 hours for H&M's latest designer collaboration.' Says the report.

In Singapore, shoppers waited in line for as much as three days to ensure they would get first dibs on the sought after clothing. According to Channel News Asia, "There were nine people at the outlet just before midnight on Tuesday, many of whom were students holding their group's place in the queue. First in line was 21-year-old Neo Jin Han, whose friend had started the queue at about 6.30pm on Monday evening."

In London, The Guardian reports that police officers had to be dispatched to H&M's Regent Street location to calm the crowds.

Online, the situation isn't much better, with H&M's webstore becoming inaccessible during parts of the day due to the high volume of shoppers.

On Ebay, some enterprising shoppers have already begun flooding the site with items from the collection at considerable mark-ups.

This is all par for the course with H&M and its high fashion collaborations. Last year's iteration with New York based king of cool Alexander Wang elicited a similar fervor among shoppers.