A new clothing line designed by Madonna for Swedish cheap-chic retailer H&M sold out in minutes in Stockholm.

The "M by Madonna" garments disappeared off the racks in a flash in Stockholm, where hundreds of shoppers had lined up outside H&M stores to be the first to get their hands on the collection, consisting of about 30 items of clothing and 10 accessories, launched around the world on Thursday.

In Paris, about 80 people lined up patiently outside the chain’s store on Boulevard Haussmann before the opening. Once the doors opened the shoppers perused calmly through the racks.

In Madrid, home of H&M’s Spanish rival Zara, the store was no busier than usual and the section selling Madonna’s items was practically empty.

The same was true in the Finnish capital Helsinki.

In Stockholm as in Berlin, there were no chaotic scenes but the collection appeared to be a huge success and H&M said it was pleased by shoppers’ positive reactions.

"The clothes were bought very quickly," company spokesman Jenni Tapper-Hoel told AFP, adding that stores across Sweden already needed to restock by midday.

At the large Hamngatan store in central Stockholm, the clothes flew off the racks in minutes.

"The collection is magnificent. Fantastic. Very trendy. It’s very Madonna," Rosy Doad, a 23-year-old makeup artist who was among the first inside the store, told AFP.

"The line is very sophisticated, a kind of business casual, for a very powerful woman, like Madonna. It’s very feminine and a little extravagant," 19-year-old musician Alex Eisenstein said.

At H and M’s flagship store in London’s Oxford Street, a quarter of the ground floor was dedicated to the singer’s collection.

The shop was busy, with a mostly younger, female crowd checking out the black, white and cream-toned items.

"I’m a huge Madonna fan," said TJ Pursell, 40, an estate agent from southwest London.

"I wanted to come and see what it was like. I think she’s great, I think her fashion’s fantastic and I wanted to see if her collection was the same," she told AFP.

Source: The Associated Press.