Cavalli previews the collection

Roberto Cavalli's line of clothes for H&M - characterised by animal prints and what some fashion insiders have called "pimp wear" for its slinky materials, studs and theatrical faux-fur reminiscent of '70s streetwalker culture - launched this morning, with the collection expected to sell out before day's end. The queues typical of recent high-profile high street launches (Kate Moss for Topshop, Anya Hindmarch's I'm Not a Plastic Bag £5 canvas bag) started in London at 6:30am, with queues winding round the corner of the Oxford Street shop before its 9am opening.

It was a scene replicated across the UK and Europe and China, with crowds waiting sometimes hours before opening, then rushing in to ring up the designer's pieces before they sold out.

The designer, who counts among his friends Sharon Stone and Jennifer Lopez, owns a 40-metre yacht, and expects to turn over £490 million this year, will be on site in New York City today to launch the collection there. The collection is a small offering of 25 pieces for women and 20 for men, many of them in his signature leopard and zebra prints. When H&M previewed the clothes last month at a star-studded party in Rome, fashionistas swooned over his full-length leopard-print maxidress, black fringed leather jacket and white tuxedo suit .

At stores in the UK and Europe, shoppers made early best-sellers of the leopard and zebra-print chiffon blouses and dresses, a zebra-print trench coat and a gold sequin bodice-front dress, according to WGSN, the fashion press bulletin. Other early attention grabbers for shoppers included black-and-white tuxedo pantsuits, high-waisted dark trousers and a faux-fur bomber jacket (which Eric Wilson likened to a fancy-dress hooker costume in The New York Times' On the Runway blog). Shoppers were also picking up costume jewellery, leopard-print hosiery and lingerie for more modest prices.

By lunchtime in Hong Kong, Greater China country manager Lex Keijser said half of the Cavalli stock had already sold out with a full sell-out expected by the end of the first day.

Cavalli is the latest of several high-profile designers who have created collections for H&M. Previously Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolk and Madonna all designed for the high street chain.

Times recommends

• Ask me about sex, not pay
• Culture clubbing
• Honor Blackman: Words from the wise