Tomorrow, Dover Street Market in New York opens its doors to the public (including that very committed member of the public who has been camped out in a pup tent on the corner, reportedly for days, waiting).Tomorrow, Dover Street Market in New York opens its doors to the public (including that very committed member of the public who has been camped out in a pup tent on the corner, reportedly for days, waiting). The multibrand store, owned by Comme des Garçons, stocks both the full range of Comme des Garçons labels (which are many), and lines that Rei Kawakubo and her team select and buy for the store—with the sphinx-like Kawakubo often doing the buys herself.

The concept of shop-in-shops at multibrand retailers is nothing new, and many department stores have concessions piloted by individual designers and labels. But few give so much freedom to so many as Dover Street Market. ("We don't go in for brainstorming," CdG CEO Adrian Joffe put it dryly to cbamd.com last year) The result is that walking through the seven stories of New York's Dover Street Market—or riding up in the glass elevator that was commissioned for the space—is a varied, eye-popping, and often surreal experience. Brands are grouped together in unlikely arrangements, decided by Kawakubo. On the seventh floor, Prada sits next to the skate brand Supreme, the Japanese line Visvim, and near André Walker, the cult designer coaxed out of semi-retirement to design a new collection for the store. And because most if not all of the labels are given license to design their own spaces and fixtures, going from one to the next, even over a distance of only a few feet, can feel like traveling between dimensions or falling down the proverbial rabbit hole. (This is not even to take into account the stairway, designed by the architects Arakawa and Gins, which somewhat resembles a birth canal and is reputed, according to a Comme representative, "to reverse your destiny.") And this is before you account for the artworks commissioned from the space, including three artist-designed pillars that evolve as they cut through the seven floors, a sound art installation, a mural and more.

The result is a store that is completely unlike all of the existing shopping experiences in New York. But for every person disoriented by the experience, there is likely to be another delighted by the creative chaos. "It's not overthought. I feel sometime shopping environments can be overcalculated—it's nearly forced, duty-free luxury," said Jonathan Anderson, who created the first branded space he's ever done in the history of his J.W. Anderson label for the store. "I don't think luxury has to be determined in that way. I think luxury is about the arrangement of ideas, not necessarily the finish."

cbamd.com spoke with several designers who created their own spaces—and in many cases, exclusive product—for Dover Street Market New York.

Dover Street Market New York opens tomorrow at 160 Lexington Avenue, NYC.
POST: 2024-11-25