Legions of women desperate to get their hands on Topshop’s new Kate Moss fashion collection will be allowed to buy only five garments, the store said yesterday.

Having been inundated with inquiries about the range, due to go on sale on May 1, the chain has launched a website for shoppers wanting a preview of the Moss-inspired clothes.

Katemosstopshop.com features a “look book” of the entire range. The collection of 50 designs includes clothes, bags, shoes and belts. Prices range from £12 for a vest top to £150 for a cropped leather jacket. A Topshop spokesman said that the chain had introduced the five-garment purchase limit because it wanted to avoid the clothes being auctioned online on launch day.

He said: “This is to stop eBaying and people grabbing armfuls of things to put online. It isn’t foolproof but what can you do as a store?”

Those unable to get to any of the 225 Topshop outlets selling the range can buy online from 4am on May 1.

Clothes in the collection include skinny jeans, one-shoulder mini dresses and and T-shirts with the letter K woven into the design.

Some critics have been surprised by how Moss, who with her boyfriend Pete Doherty projects a somewhat alternative lifestyle, has seemingly “sold out” to a large corporation. New York magazine declared Moss’s collection for Topshop “bland”. The New York Post’s headline covering the range, “Duplikate”, was equally searing.

On the Topshop website, however, Moss is in good company. A number of the garments are modelled by Irina Lazareanu. Miss Lazareanu is one of Doherty’s ex-girlfriends, and a former drummer in his band, Babyshambles.

Times recommends

• How I lost the gift of joy for a while
• How to get Coleen Rooney's post-baby body
• The A-Z of winter style rules