A collab, short for collaboration, is a one-off partnership between two names: a luxury designer and a mass-market chain, an artist and a label, a celebrity and a sportswear brand. The appeal is simple, a famous signature at a price that does not require selling the furniture.
The modern template is usually traced to November 2004, when Karl Lagerfeld designed more than 50 pieces for men and women for H&M. In Stockholm thousands of shoppers queued before the doors opened at ten, and at the Hamngatan store the rails were reportedly empty within five minutes, with the stockroom cleared by half past ten. Local reports even described a shop mannequin stripped bare by keen customers. Since then designer collabs have become a regular fixture of the high-street calendar, and so has the overnight queue that comes with them.