Missoni For Target Leads To Site Crash

Missoni's signature zig-zag pattern and high-end price tag has long made it a hot commodity, though a rather expensive one. When news spread that the brand would be launching a line of products for Target stores, fashionistas apparently cleared their calendars for yesterday's launch date and got ready. The result was a stampede of department store and internet traffic that sent zig-zaggy prints flying off shelves and crashed Target.com.

Thanks to the Italian brand's deals of $40 skirts and $600 patio sets (Missoni clothes usually cost hundreds or thousands of dollars), Target.com found itself offline for most of the day. “The excitement for this limited-time designer collection is unprecedented,” Target spokeswoman Morgan O’Murray told The New York Times, confirming that it was the high demand for the Missoni products that caused the crash.

Many excited shoppers, feeling as if they couldn't get through the online door, were not happy. "@TargetStyle please take your #missonifortarget commercials out of rotation! It's a bit of a stake in the heart. We can't buy any of it," tweeted Heather Swanson. Many other tweets complained of canceled orders.

Apparently, not every Missoni garment flying off the shelves was intended for the buyer. Shopping opportunists have been posting Missoni for Target products on Ebay, the Los Angeles Times reports, but the store's low prices are not a promise there,