Fresh digs

Dover Street Market unveils it’s incredible new five storied Haymarket location
By Alex James Taylor | Fashion | 18 March 2016

Following the January announcement that Dover Street Market will be moving to a brand new Haymarket location, tomorrow will see the renowned concept store fling open its doors to their latest incarnation. And it’s on a whole new level.

We mean that quite literally, as the new space provides a whopping five floors (31, 384 sq ft. – triple the size of their previous space) to play with. Whilst the Grade II building’s brick exterior and central staircase remains unchanged the interior feeds on Rei Kawakubo’s bold creative vision.

This is no middle-of-the-road store (that’s just not in DSM’s nature), innovation is etched into it’s foundations. Featuring all Comme des Garçons and Junya Watanabe lines, the store also features spaces dedicated to the likes of Molly Goddard, Craig Green, Margaret Howell, Gosha Rubchinskiy, Loewe, Vetements, Rick Owens, Dior, Gucci and Raf Simons, amongst numerous others.

Whilst all Comme des Garçons spaces were designed by Rei Kawakubo, brands with dedicated departments were given complete creative freedom to design their area as they saw fit; creating individualistic set-ups within the DSM walls – Paul Smith turned his plot into a replica of his first ever shop, opened in 1970 in Nottingham, Gosha’s is decorated with artwork from his third book ‘Youth Hotel, alongside furniture designed specially by the designer himself and Palace Skateboards have outfitted theirs with Italian marble engraved with the brand’s prominent iconography.

“I want 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 and coming together of different kindred souls who all share a strong personal vision.” – Rei Kawakubo

As with their previous locale, DSM have tapped creative talent from various mediums to form an holistic melting pot of fashion, music and art. Sound artist Calx Vive has created a unique store soundtrack (there’ll be no painful Michael Buble lounge crooning here, thank you) using different audio configurations on each of the five floors to form a textured sound under the united credo of “beautiful chaos” – a phrase continuously used by Kawakubo in relation to the retail space. Sculptural artworks sit on each of the five floors, as three different lighting installations come courtesy of Thierry Dreyfus, Pedro Cabrita Reis and Daniel Young and Christian Giroux.

Of course, all this shopping triggers quite the appetite, but not to worry DSM have all bases covered, including a Rose Bakery on site – a slice of quiche and a Vetements leather jacket, now there’s a combo we can get behind.

Dover Street Market is located at 18-22 Haymarket, SW1Y 4DG and opens on Saturday 19th March 11:00-7pm

GALLERY


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