Handbags at dawn (or how thousands started queueing at 2am for a £5 cotton carrier)

It's made of unbleached cotton, has handles resembling lengths of old rope and is not what anyone would call voluminous.

But when it went on sale yesterday morning, it was a genuine case of handbags at dawn.

The scenes of shopping frenzy were not at H&M or Primark.

Rather this was consumer chaos at usually sedate Sainsbury's as thousands of fashion devotees flocked to pick up the season's must-have - the Anya Hindmarch shopping bag.

Marked with the slogan "I'm not a plastic bag" - the bag (reusable cotton) is part of a campaign to make consumers more aware of the perils of plastic bags.

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Bagging a bargain: Crowds line up at a Sainsbury's in Camden, North London, to buy one of the Anya Hindmarch eco-shoppers

Quite whether the crowds who began gathering from 2am had the environment on their mind is open to question.

By the time the bags went on sale at 8am queues were snaking around buildings with thousands of women, and a few men, hoping to snap up a Hindmarch creation.

As tension grew, one woman was heard declaring, "You know I will fight for one of these bags don't you?"

Some 20,000 of the bags, selling for £5, were up for sale. But with just a small number of bags in each store, only the most devoted of shoppers were successful.

By 9am many stores had already sold out and by lunchtime they had sold out at all 450 stores making for one of the most unusual fashion bonanzas ever seen.

The motivation of some shoppers became clear within minutes of the first bags sailing through the checkout when one by one they started to appear on eBay.

Last night bids of more than £200 were rolling in. Meanwhile when a limited number of bags sold at the Hindmarch boutique in London last month, they went on to fetch more than £400.

The object of desire: One of the £5 Anya Hindmarch shopping bags

Its "It" bag credentials were secured when it was chosen as the goodie-bag for guests at the 2007 Vanity Fair Oscar night party.

Since then celebrities such as Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller and Lily Allen been seen touting the shopper as if it were the latest offering from Gucci or Fendi.

But for those wondering what on earth makes this not a plastic bag any better than the next, the bag's real kudos is in the blink and you'll miss it bow situated just between the handles. It is the Hindmarch logo.

In well-heeled South Kensington - just a stones throw from Harrods and Harvey Nicholls - customers brought chairs and provisions with them as they began arriving in the small hours.

Given ticket numbers, hot drinks and snacks, they formed a dignified queue - many of them in business suits ready to go straight to work - with bag on arm.

Anthony Sinclair, 26, a business student from Surrey, arrived at 3am wanting to impress his girlfriend.

He said: "My girlfriend wants one and I've bought it as a surprise. She has been dropping hints about it so I'm going to go home and wake her up with it. I hope she'll be impressed.

"I like the idea behind the bag, but I think this huge queue is ridiculous."

It was all about style for American student Elizabeth Gregoire, 21, who arrived at a more civilised 4.45am.

"I don't like plastic bags, but this is stylish and good for the environment."

Student Elizabeth Gregoire receives her handbag from designer Anya Hindmarch at Sainsbury's in Cromwell Road today

Gulnaz Jishi, 25, who works for an investment bank, was suprised to find Miss Hindmarch signing bags and vowed: "I'm not going to sell it on eBay and I will be using it for my supermarket shopping, it looks sturdy enough."

Others were determined not to run the risk of spoiling their prize purchase with unwelcome grocery spillages.

"I know this is an environmentally friendly shopping bag aimed at encouraging people to ditch their plastic bags for this more eco-friendly option, but the truth is I won't," said one would-be fashionista.

"The bottom line is it looks great and I don't want to any squashed tomatoes, cracked eggs or spilt milk on it.

"Besides it wouldn't fit a week's worth of shopping in and will look a lot better with my sunglasses in."

In Essex, cab driver Kirk Spence, 27, from Woodford Green, was woken by his wife at 4.30 am with strict instructions about his dawn shop.

"I don't know anything about the bag, but I do know I can't go home empty handed," he said.

Last night Sainsbury's was basking in its success. A spokesman said even models Twiggy and Erin O'Connor had put in requests for bags.

Hindmarch developed the cotton bags with the We Are What We Do movement, a not for profit organisation which encourages people to use simple every day actions to change the world.

The designer said: "The idea was to create something that was really desirable to highlight ethical issues without being really worthy.

"It's amazing seeing people walking around with this billboard and I have mine with me all the time.

"When I started thinking about designing it I realised I could do something quite exciting and had a funny feeling it would be quite popular, but I wish we had ordered more bags because my shop's been like a call centre in these last few weeks because people have been really frustrated they have not been able to get hold of them."

The launch was spurred by statistics showing that Britons use an average of 167 plastic bags each year, 10 billion all together.

But only one in every 200 bags is recycled and plastics can take up to 400 years to break down in landfill.

Unfortunately that fact may seemed to escape some people yesterday morning.

Some supermarket staff were seen putting the eco-friendly shoppers into familiar orange, and distinctly plastic, bags.

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