SINGAPORE - Early bird shoppers had to take turns to get their hands on the much-anticipated Alexander Wang collection at fashion retailer H&M this morning.

The collection, which features sportswear-inspired apparel by the American designer, was launched at both H&M's flagship Orchard Building store and its ION Orchard branch at 8am.

But the queue was formed much earlier, with some shoppers even turning up on Tuesday morning, almost 48 hours before the launch.

The eager early birds, however, were not able to enter the store all at one go. They were given colour-coded wrist bands that entitled them to different time slots of 15 minutes to get their hands on their coveted pieces.

Jessica Tan and six friends were in the queue since 11pm on Wednesday night and were given the 9.05am-9.20am slot.

"I'm worried that popular items like the scuba jacket would run out," said the 19-year-old student who was at the Orchard Building store.

"My friends and I really want one."

Fashion student Amirah Asrori, 19, who started queuing at 3am, emerged the store looking very satisfied. She managed to get 22 items.

"It's a once-in-a-life thing, so if you miss it, it's never going to happen again," she told The Straits Times.

The frenzy for the collection also spread to other countries such as South Korea, Japan and Indonesia.