Criei um UICollectionViewCell personalizado no Interface Builder, vinculei visualizações à classe e, em seguida, quando desejar usar e definir uma string para o rótulo na string, esse rótulo terá um valor nulo.

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    // Register cell classes
    self.collectionView.registerClass(LeftMenuCollectionViewCell.self, forCellWithReuseIdentifier: "ls")
}

override func collectionView(collectionView: UICollectionView!, cellForItemAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath!) -> UICollectionViewCell! {

    var cell: LeftMenuCollectionViewCell
    cell = collectionView.dequeueReusableCellWithReuseIdentifier("ls", forIndexPath: indexPath) as LeftMenuCollectionViewCell
    println(cell.label) // <- this is nil, why??
    cell.label.text = "asd"

    return cell
}

E a célula da subclasse:

class LeftMenuCollectionViewCell: UICollectionViewCell {

    @IBOutlet weak var imageView: UIImageView!
    @IBOutlet weak var label: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var activityIndicatorView: UIActivityIndicatorView!
}