Dover Street Market is my favorite temple of avant-garde fashion. I love that it brings contemporary art and style to the Murray Hill neighborhood in New York, an otherwise unchic area of the city. Comme des Garcons' Rei Kawakubo has always been a pioneer of conceptual fashion. Dover Street Market completely refreshes their gallery/boutique to exhibit new artwork and merchandise for a totally new shopping experience every few months, which makes it one of NYC's most interesting retail destination.
Last Thursday's open house revealed installations by Craig Green, The Great Frog, and Undercover. The red sculptural pieces up top are from the Comme des Garcons section of the store. On the first floor, there was a big archway devoted to the Converse and Comme des Garcons collaboration featuring the red eyes motif.
For designers, there were luxury sections of fashion forward menswear from Thom Browne and Comme des Garcons again. For women, designers included Valentino, Simone Rocha, Prada, Miu Miu and Azzedine Alaia. Kids could pick from lots of fun (but VERY expensive) stuffed toys and accessories.
Most fun are the 4F showroom and galleries where you can find the most artistic runway fashion, that may not be for the most practical consumer. The beauty of Dover Street Market is that such trivial details don't matter in the face of design. Happy shopping!
photos by Mariana Leung
