Winter Holiday Countdown: R is for Rei Kawakubo's Dover Street Market New York

By: Tamara Arnew 

DOVER STREET MARKET NEW YORK DOORS
PHOTO CREDIT: DOVERSTREETMARKET.COM

While much of the past year in business in the industry has been about contention for the Asia markets and appeal to the accession of street fashion, Rei Kawakubo (founder and head of Comme des Garçons) has again, been walking a different catwalk altogether. The brand has come to be known for it's originative perspective on design, longevity in causative collaborations and their part and parcel market-style retail concepts. With the opening of the Dover Street Market's New York City location, this month, it's evident that her approach has become increasingly relevant in the context of, of the moment Western aesthetic and shopping attitudes. 

"WE MAKE NOISE NOT CLOTHES" MERCHANDISING DSMNY
PHOTO CREDIT: DOVERSTREETMARKET.COM

Rei Kawakubo, however, is quick to diminish the thinking that this is a well-designed way of being out front. In her Q&A with Women's Wear Daily she suggests that Comme des Garçons doesn't "plan anything" and that the space for the Dover Street Market location in NYC was "found by accident," — which, of course only furthers our fondness for the label.  The most forward of fashion has a funny means of always finding us too, in serendipitous ways. 

SUPREME MERCHANDISING AT DSMNY
PHOTO CREDIT: DOVERSTREETMARKET.COM

SUPREME FOR DOVER STREET MARKET NYC
PHOTO CREDIT: HYPE BEAST

The Dover Street Market space is a seven story destination for "creative chaos", as Matthew Schneier writes in his article on the Style.Com Style File blog, and concurring street style influences. The curated structure of the "market" is reliant on the occurrence of a catalogue of brands ranging from Supreme to Prada and the multiple lines under Comme des Garçons. These brands interact in their layout in a way that reflects the mixing of high and street fashion and the organic thought behind what Comme des Garçons and Rei Kawakubo's business sense embodies. Pieces designed specifically for the space include those involving the Dover Street Market logo, DSMNY X Nike Air Python Lux wear, an exclusive collection from Prada and Simone Rocha, Mastermind X Black Comme des Garçons X DSMNY, Lou Dalton limited edition t-shirts, and a Common Projects X DSMNY shoe. 

MASTERMIND X CDG X DSMNY
PHOTO CREDIT: DOVERSTREETMARKET.COM

MERCHANDISING STRUCTURAL INTERIORS AT DSMNY
PHOTO CREDIT: DOVERSTREETMARKET.COM

Through Dover Street Market online a full floor plan and layout can be viewed alongside an e-commerce platform option and articles focal to what's new in the space — which, as of right now, is everything and anything. Rei Kawakubo's concept direction is self-described as "wanting to create a kind of market where various creators from various fields gather together and encounter each other in an ongoing atmosphere of beautiful chaos; the mixing up an coming together of different kindred souls who all share a strong personal vision." With the opportunity for ever evolutionary revolution within the space, we can't wait for the uncommon sort of way in which she will continue to "make fashion become fascinating." (Kawakubo, DSM.com)

MOSCOT MERCHANDISING AT DSMNY
PHOTO CREDIT: DOVERSTREETMARKET.COM

Sources: WWD The Insiders, Doverstreetmarket.com, NYRacked.com, Style.com, HypeBeast

Winter Holiday Countdown: T is for Twenty Years Later Barneys to Take Back Chelsea

By: Tamara Arnew 

BARNEYS NEW YORK, FORMER CHELSEA STORE
PHOTO CREDIT: FASHIONISTA.COM

Although not-posed to open until 2017, Barneys divulged that the department store will return to the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan where they have garnered historic and sentimental space.  The Seventh Avenue store location is currently retailed-in by Loehmanns but from 1923 to 1997 was the flagship for Barneys New York. 

BARNEYS CHELSEA LOCATION IN 1997
PHOTO CREDIT: THE NEW YORK TIMES 

In Chelsea, over the seventy-four years prior to moving the department store to occupy the Soho and Upper West Side locations, Barney Pressman developed the luxe business from a rented 500-square-foot space with a "no imitations and personal attention to every detail" philosophy. The success of this location eventually came to encompass the entire block (and ten stories up) between 16th and 17th Avenue until it's closure. The Rubin Museum of Art, that shares the space with Loehmanns, will remain in the location as Barneys recaptures former, future and fortune. 

With it's New York "Bright Lights, Big City" synonymy and the appeal of shopping curator splendor in the nostalgic building, the opening in 2017 will signify twenty-years since the department store's departure and a new age of choice extravagance.    

BARNEYS HOLIDAY 2013 WINDOW INSTALLMENT
PHOTO CREDIT: AZURE MAGAZINE 

Since Barneys is known for their experimental and dimensional window displays, including their Winter 2013 seasonal installment in collaboration with Jay-Z, here is an overview of some of the current New York City Holiday Window Displays from preeminent fashion retailers. The list includes the four B's (that being Bendels, Bergdorfs, Barneys and Bloomingdales), as well as several other laureate storefronts. For something a bit closer to home, Holt Renfrew's Bloor Street Location hosts a holiday vignette worth visiting. 

Sources: New York Journey, The Real Deal Magazine, NYC The Official Guide, The New York Times, The WallStreet Journal, Fashionista.Com, Marketing Magazine, Azure Magazine