People everywhere are calling it “Target Tuesday” – the internet equivalent to the post-Thanksgiving madhouse of a shopping day known as Black Friday.

Yesterday, Italian designer Missoni launched a 400-piece collection at Target. And yesterday, Target felt the full force of fashion-hungry online shoppers as their website crashed multiple times and was pretty much non-functional for most of the day.

The site didn’t become functional again until early this morning, as a Tweet from Target claims that online sales resumed sometimes around 6 am EST.

Apparently, Target knows how to create buzz for a product launch, and this time it worked a little too well. Missoni is a fashion house known for colorful, abstract patterns and the use of a variety of fabrics and materials. I’m not really in tune with the current trends in fashion at the moment, but apparently they are kind of a big deal. And Target’s Missoni collection offers the products for a fraction of the cost one would pay normally. Popularity + bargain = your online infrastructure taking quite the hit.

Both the official Target Twitter account and the Target Style account spent most of the day yesterday and part of the day today fielding tweets about the down site. All in all, the two accounts must have responded to dozens, possibly over a hundred specific complaints.

Of course, it wasn’t just the website that saw a spike in traffic. Retail stores were swamped as well, as you can see from this picture posted to a Target blog All the way up here.

One little thing about that blog. It’s billed as the blog of Marina, the spokesmodel for Missoni for Target. The thing is, Marina is a giant doll. She even has a Twitter account that says “I’m little Marina and I’m a real doll -joints hinges and all. Target and Missoni have hired me to cover their new collection.” Here’s a video clip of her in action at an undisclosed event. Trust me, it’s not creepy at all…