I love Lanvin.

H&M have once again triumphed in their annual designer collaboration. The latest, with French fashion house Lanvin, sold out within a matter of hours, and it's easy to see why. All the designs are amazing - I'm a huge fan of the red 50's dress, which is just perfect for the Christmas season. But on another note, given the fact that H&M aren't at the top of the High Street list, it may seem somewhat strange that they, more than any other retailer, manage to pull in the massive names in fashion for collaborations. Topshop, the only high street retailer to feature in London Fashion Week, have the Kate Moss collection, and Celia Birtwell designed a capsule for Topshop in 2007. Miss Selfridge had a short-lived Gossip Girl collection of a mere 8 dresses and New Look had the Fearn Cotton collection, but surprisingly none of these are big names in fashion. Kate Moss is the muse, not the designer, and Celia Birtwell's name pales in comparison to, for example, Karl Lagerfield and Jimmy Choo, both of which H&M have collaborated with.

On paper, you would think that it would be Topshop that would pull in the major designers. After all, it is the high street equivalent of the catwalk. And so goes the food chain, that from the runway it goes to Topshop, and after that the trends generally fritter down to Miss Selfridge and New Look, and then to all the shops that we don't want our coveted playsuits to ever appear in, like Rebel Rebel, aka neon galore. Rest assured, that by the time the playsuit as an item has been blinged up and chavved out, the rest of us will not be wearing them any more, but you get the point. So why then is it H&M that attracts the big names? Well, it is the biggest international high street retailer in the world, so it's kind of understandable I suppose. But regardless, I love the fact that the likes of Jimmy Choo and Comme Des Garcons are available to us mere mortals from a high street store, and it appears that Sofia Coppolo thinks the same: "It's so cool he's working with H&M. It makes it accessible to all kinds of young people now to be able to afford it and wear it".

And the Lanvin collection does not disappoint. I was a bit dubious about the Matthew Williamson's '09 collection in all honesty, yet Elbaz seems to have stayed true to the label and created a collection that is chic, and oh so definitely French. But more importantly, the Lanvin for H&M collection doesn't look like a capsule collection for a high street chain. It looks like Lanvin. Which is surely the whole point. Personally, I'm just sad I wasn't in London for the launch. I would have happily stood outside of the store all night if it meant getting my hands on a little Lanvin luxury...

With frills and bows galore, the collection is to die for. The androgynous bow-tied suit is oh-so chic, and I'm in love with the Parisian waitress look, sexed up with some divine red velvet bows. I'm also loving the virginial white Madonna-esque outfit, and I heart the head-to-toe red number. Oh, how I wish I lived in London.

Nevertheless, rumour has it that Tom Ford will be next year's designer. So I have made a pact with myself that I will definitely be in the capital for that, as it's currently the only thing that's consoling me that I don't own one of these babes...