Located at Lexington and East 30th St., Dover Street Market is actually more of a “high-concept mall,” featuring such labels as Alaia, Prada, Alexander Wang, and – of course – Comme des Garcons. Kawakubo, who also conceptualized the Dover Street Markets in Tokyo and London explains, “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.”
This beautiful chaos is exemplified in the interior layouts, where the clothing hangs from display racks that resemble arrangements of pick-up-sticks, and beneath ceilings clad in energetic wood lattices. The spirit of the ready made pervades the spaces: to create one service counter, ramshackle doors and metal pipes come together in a seemingly haphazard assemblage. In another corner, a jumble of boxes is stacked above a wood archway set against a wall, suit jackets hanging off the hooks on various white plinths. Kawakubo spared no surface – even the columns are exuberantly wrapped in poster art and patchwork knits.