LONDON (Bloomberg) — Hennes & Mauritz AB, Europe’s second-largest clothes retailer, started selling a one-time collection by Dutch designers Viktor & Rolf in a bid to stimulate sales growth as it loses ground to rival Inditex SA, owner of Zara.The Viktor & Rolf collection includes a tuxedo for $250, or about a fifth of the price the designers can fetch for a men’s suit, and a wedding dress for $349. The line went on sale today in 250 stores in 24 countries, the Stockholm-based company said in a statement.

“I like their style,” said Cliff Chang, 25, in an Amsterdam H&M store yesterday. “It’s nicely cut. Normally it’s much too expensive and I can’t afford to buy it, so this is great.” About 200 people were lined up outside before the store opened today.

H&M, which sells tops for as little as 4.90 euros ($6.26), has used limited collections by fashion designers to stoke sales and take on Inditex, the owner of the Zara fashion chain. Karl Lagerfeld’s 2004 line helped lift its November revenue by 24 percent. H&M repeated the move with lines by Stella McCartney and has sold a Madonna-themed track suit.

The collections mostly serve to promote the company name and lift customer awareness, analysts have said. “H&M is becoming more visible in new markets and through its events,” such as the designer collections, Claire Kent, an analyst at Morgan Stanley in London, wrote in a note published on October 30. She rates the stock “overweight.”

The designer lines haven’t been enough to stave off competition from Arteixo, Spain-based Inditex, which is opening stores at a faster rate and prefers to imitate luxury designers, rather than hire them. The Spanish company last year overtook H&M as the world’s largest clothing-store operator.

H&M shares fell two kronor, or 0.6 percent, to 313.5 kronor in Stockholm. They have gained 23 percent in the past year, less than half of Inditex’s 56 percent jump.

“I never shop at H&M because I like quality clothes,” said Christian Fargou, a doctor from Paris who was shopping today at H&M for Viktor & Rolf apparel. “I don’t know the brand that well. I never bought any of their clothes before. It was curiosity that brought me here, and I am satisfied with what I see. The value for the money is terrific.”

“Consistent like-for-like progress remains a struggle” for H&M, Matthew Taylor, an analyst at UBS AG in London, wrote in a note November 7. He rates the stock “neutral”.

H&M’s sales in September missed analysts’ expectations as the company lowered prices after inventory climbed. High temperatures in Europe caused consumers to delay autumn clothes shopping. Inditex, which doesn’t report monthly sales, said in September second-quarter revenue rose 25 percent.

H&M wasn’t the first to lure fashion heavyweights to discount retailers. Target Corp. hired Isaac Mizrahi for a line of women’s clothes in 2003.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, The Gap Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. have followed suit and recruited designers including Vera Wang and Nicole Miller. Gap on November 7 began selling dresses designed by Roland Mouret.

Shoppers have proved eager to snap up designer goods at a fraction of their price: Consumers lined up outside Gap stores the day the Mouret collection arrived and a store near London’s Finsbury Square sold out and had changed its window display by yesterday.

Gap sold a line of ten Mouret dresses for between $45 ($86) and $78.

“We are very pleased with the response” for Roland Mouret’s collections, said Gap spokesman Greg Rossiter in an interview.