You wouldn’t think that high profile designers really needed the extra bob. However, designing high street collections has become quite the trend within the fashion world, with every well-established and up and coming designer wanting to bridge the gap between affordable fashion and high-end items.

On November 14 the latest collaboration was unleashed, headlining none other than Jimmy Choo’s shiny-heeled kickers in H&M. The store has not been timid in boasting their ties with fresh-off-the-catwalk creative personnel and not always to their own success. Their Madonna collection in 2007 was a flop to say the least, and brawls at the Stella McCartney counters in 2005 hardly started the fad with the best of impressions. Even so, it seems we can’t get enough of these consumerist trendsetters.

Kate Moss sold her style to Topshop in 2007 and now British fashion has only to fall at her feet. Even the relative nobodys of the fashion world have jumped on the bandwagon, with collections from Lily Allen and Patricia Field rallying for a bit of the catwalk swagger in New Look and Marks and Spencer. Hardly haute couture. But then for Stella McCartney, global domination seemed possible when she released her Gap Kids range on November 2.

Destroyers or dare-devils? Whether you agree that designer items should be reserved for the elite or not, being able to walk out of your local H&M swinging a Jimmy Choo bag over your shoulder is perhaps too irresistible to dismiss.

By Gabriella Patterson