A Trip And a Half

Dover Street Market London will be celebrating its ten year anniversary this year and it will be a 2nd birthday for its Tokyo counterpart.  Belated as it may be, on my recent week-long trip to New York, I thought Dover Street Market New York deserved a thorough exploration, seeing as the Dover Street Market stores collectively have sucked up so much of my eyes-glazed-meandering-footsteps browsing time.  The New York store is no exception.  Having been to all three (London, Ginza and New York), it’s tempting to compare them.  We could talk simple square meters (Ginza is the largest, followed by New York and then London) but that would be pointless.  London is the smallest but it was the first – revolutionary and magnificent in its own right because of the retail waves it created.  Ginza is the largest and it’s a gleaming open and fluid space that like the rest of Tokyo, just makes you want to really shop (guess where most of my DSM £ have gone towards?).  New York is a unique structure – perhaps most adventurous of the three in its architecture and art installation, as this seven storey store housed inside a beaux-art building is linked up by an impressive central glass elevator and imposing columns commissioned out to various artists.

It’s a space that really needs thorough exploration as you send yourself up to the seventh floor (my DSM routine is always to work my way down) and then snake and slide down, floor by floor, through the many nooks and crannies, clearly defined by their surrounding structures and installations.  In a way you’re guided by the columns, sometimes guerilla-knitted by Magda Sayeg, sometimes collaged with found bric-a-bric by Leo Sewell and sometimes covered with an intricate wooden skyscape by interdisciplinary arts practise London Fieldwords.  It’s like a strange puzzle to figure out and once you do, it’s goodies galore.  Comme des Garcons and its entire universe (Junya Watanabe, Tricot, Black, Play, Shirt) of course, are given ample space and fixtures designed by Rei Kawakubo herself, to breathe.  I particularly like the taped and carved shelving created by artist Mark Cooper, where the beautiful becomes functional .

But it’s the individual spaces for key and young designers that makes DSM NY really stand out.  It’s like they’ve been given a free-er license to express themselves at DSM’s third sister space.  The likes of J.W. Anderson and Simone Rocha were given their own space to really play around with – the former building blue playschool blocks to house his collections and the latter taking textural cues from her S/S14 pearls and nude organza.  On the immensely clever fourth floor where currently, a giant gold kewpie has taken up residence, a group of young designers have their own designated and personalised rails forming an eclectic mish-mash – Shaun Samson’s surf’n’skate antics, Jaquemus’ clean and purposely naive lines, Craig Green’s tie dye prints, Phoebe English’ knotted nylon and Sibling’s current collaboration with artist Richard Woods.  It leads to a trippy staircase created by the late Madeline Gins (one of her last pieces of work before she passed away) and Arakawa of Reversible Destiny – a perfect madcap structure that encapsulates the twists and turns of the store.

This is a current snapshot of an ever-changing space of course and many elements and designers will change as the store goes through its seasonal “tachiagari” changeover, but right now outside of delectable SS 14 merchandise, Stephen Jones’ arrangement of hats to celebrate his Wisteria Hysteria perfume and the accompanying film installation is definitely impressive.  As is the unique Prada space at the seventh floor painted with those now almost ubiquitous murals.  What isn’t ubiquitous though is the special exclusive pieces reproduced and derived from the S/S 08 fairies collection featuring the illustrations of James Jean, bringing back memories of my pining and yearning for a piece at the time.  Hand painted and finished with silver and gold leaf accents, these pieces are definitely a pleasantly surprising echo from the past and a stellar example of the one-off nature of DSM in general.

Knitted columns by Magda Sayeg

Installation for Stephen Jones’ second colalborative perfume with CdG, Wisteria Hysteria

World Archive curated by Michael Costiff

Staircase created by Reversible Destiny

Shaun Samson space

Installation by Phoebe English

Craig Green space

Sibling space

J J.S. Lee space

Gold Rush display to celebrate Golden Week

Sacai

Columns created by Leo Sewell

J.W. Anderson space

Shelves created by Mark Cooper

Simone Rocha space

Supreme space

Junya Watanabe space

Andre Walker space

Prada space