# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Conceived by Rei Kawakubo and Adrian Joffe, Dover Street Market is a place for creators from various fields to gather, encounter and collide with each other in a burgeoning atmosphere of beautiful chaos. The original Dover Street Market first opened in London, Mayfair in September 2004.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dover Street Market's Page | BoF Careers | The Business of Fashion

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Everything British Vogue knows about Dover Street Market, including the latest news, features and images.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
C omme des Garçons, regarded as the world's most avant-garde fashion house, today launches a new brand under its umbrella: CDG. A collection that comprises what founder Rei Kawakubo refers to as "Comme des Garçons' iconic designs" (namely: T-shirts, trainers, bomber jackets and the like emblazoned with the brand's logo), arrives with the same, curious appeal that encompasses much of Kawakubo's ouvre through a series of installations appearing in Comme outposts from London to Beijing. First drop within these spaces: a capsule collection of printed separates entitled Breaking News - "I thought it was a pretty nifty title," says CEO Adrian Joffe - which will, become a fully-fledged collection sold through Dover Street Market Japan and on the first ever Kawakubo-designed website in July, and rolled out to the rest of world come October.

During a time when fashion merchandise is reaching peak desirability, Comme is clearly aligning itself with the logomaniacal zeitgeist. "We've had Good Design Shop for some years now," continues Joffe, referring to a specific collection sold in the Tokyo-based retailer "and the collaboration between CDG and GDS came to an end, but sales have been amazing recently for the CDG part so we thought: why not simply carry on on our own? So, Good Design Shop became the new CDG brand, with a similar concept of good, iconic design that the Comme des Garçons part of Good Design Store had."

While on the one end, Comme des Garçons offers spectacular showpieces - enormous, sculptural works that reflect the purest vision of Kawakubo's creativity - at the other it does remarkable trade in its trainers and T-shirts, which underscore the business' $300 million annual turnover. The Play logo, a sweet cartoon heart with eyes drawn by Filip Pagowski, has become a ubiquitous symbol across the world; they do a roaring trade through their Nike collaborations; their perfumes combine creative spirit with determinedly commercial appeal. While it would be easy for the brand to nestle within a vaunted corner of the industry, what is perhaps most remarkable about Comme is how it translates its radical approach to design into broad appeal. "With [the core brand] Comme des Garçons I can allow myself to be more free," explained the notoriously reticent Kawakubo in January, as part of a Vogue feature on her work. "Other brands, other parts of the business, they give me that freedom. The total is the mix between creation and business. I have all these brands to try to get the freedom that each one gives me."

"Good design is simple design... for the future," continues Kawakubo in the press release for the launch, and her decision to venture into e-commerce for the first time signals a new approach for the designer. While the Dover Street Market stores have an online presence, she has never before embraced the opportunities e-commerce affords - in fact, she explained that "a lot of people tell me that just going to the shops and seeing the clothes makes them feel good - and you can't expect to have that feeling from an e-shop, which is why I'm not interested in e-commerce. Whether it's when people see the fashion shows, or visit the store, I want them to feel something incredible, to feel good and positive."

Rei "wasn't a fan as such, it's true," continues Joffe. "But she is a fan of doing something she's never done before, so she finally became intrigued with designing an online shop and the perennial, iconic design concept of the brand lends itself rather well to e-commerce." In some senses then, this is a newly liberated venture for Kawakubo who will be taking the iconoclastic simplicity of CDG into uncharted digital territory. "It's the principle of business, not to stay stagnant," she said. "To grow little by little is the natural process... there's no choice." We'll wait with bated breath to see what a Kawakubo-designed e-store looks like on July 20th; in the meanwhile, Breaking News provides plenty of opportunity to invest in the spirit of CDG.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Comme des Garçons Launches New Brand: CDG

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
C omme des Garçons, regarded as the world's most avant-garde fashion house, today launches a new brand under its umbrella: CDG. A collection that comprises what founder Rei Kawakubo refers to as "Comme des Garçons' iconic designs" (namely: T-shirts, trainers, bomber jackets and the like emblazoned with the brand's logo), arrives with the same, curious appeal that encompasses much of Kawakubo's ouvre through a series of installations appearing in Comme outposts from London to Beijing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As the legendary store relocates to Haymarket, we chronicle everything you need to know about it

Fashion, it has been said, is an industry populated by the people who never quite fitted in at school. If that's the case, then Dover Street Market - the radical retail space founded by Rei Kawakubo and Adrian Joffe of Comme des Garçons - is the metaphorical locker room, the place where outsiders can duck out of the real world and be welcomed into an environment full of people just like them. When they founded DSM in 2004, Kawakubo and Joffe threw out the rulebook that dictated how a luxury store should look, and with it the totalitarian homogeneity that apparently declared that every one of a fashion house's shops across the globe should have walls the exact same hue, or come with identical imagery on display.

Instead, inspired by the riotous beginnings of the now-demolished Kensington Market - a one-building hub of British style and subculture for four decades - they created a place where they could sell their own designs alongside those of their peers, nurturing and supporting emerging talent as they did so. After a slow start (Joffe says it took a good few years for people to get to grips with what they were trying to do) the business boomed, with shoppers and industry vets alike recognising the brilliant harmony in the way artistic expression and commercial potential coexisted within its walls. So great is the power of DSM that it's become a synecdoche - say the words 'Dover Street' to anyone with even a passing interest in fashion and they'll finish your sentence 'Market'.

This weekend, however, DSM is moving from the street that gave it its name. Having outgrown its original location (and facing tripled rent costs) the beloved store has found a new home on Haymarket, and looks set to transform the street from a tourist back alley into a creative mecca - and the £500m being pumped into the area by the Crown Estate won't hurt either. Ahead of its grand opening tomorrow, get familiar with the ins and outs of the world's most boundary-breaking shop - from impromptu Patti Smith performances to Gosha Rubchinskiy fanboys and its infamous Market Market archive sales.
A IS FOR: ARTS
Since its inception over a decade ago, DSM has brilliantly balanced the fine line between concept and consumption. A strong part of this is the connections it has forged with creators, challenging preconceptions of what a retail space should be by transforming it into a place where art and shopping can co-exist. Names including notorious art duo Jake and Dinos Chapman, punk graphic artist Jamie Reid, the Keith Haring Foundation and set designer Gary Card have contributed windows, while DSM has collaborated with the Frieze Art Fair, the Michael Hoppen Gallery and the ICA to showcase work throughout the store.
B IS FOR: BEAUTIFUL CHAOS
Two words that come up time and time again when discussing Dover Street? "Beautiful chaos." First used by Kawakubo when describing the store back in 2004, the phrase epitomises the visionary nature of DSM, a place where different people from different creative worlds come together to shop side by side, where the spaces created by designers are as important as the clothes housed within them, and where you might just find yourself trying something on in an old portacabin turned changing room or paying at a tin hut till. As Joffe recently told The Business of Fashion, "We're not a company that makes five-year plans." Their approach is more spontaneous, intuitive and creative than that.

"In Japan recently, Burberry opened a multi-million dollar flagship store. (Dover Street Market) will be the antithesis of that" - Rei Kawakubo

C IS FOR: CONCRETE
"In Japan recently, Burberry opened a multi-million dollar flagship store," Rei Kawakubo told Susannah Frankel in Dazed's September 2004 issue. "(Dover Street Market) will be the antithesis of that. Fortunately, we haven't got a lot of money so we can't afford marble floors. We have to find an idea that won't cost too much." When it comes to interiors, the manifesto for DSM was deliberately anti-luxury. This has extended not just to the original store, where the floors were poured concrete, but to Haymarket, where the existing wooden floors have been replaced by the industrial material.
D IS FOR: DOVER STREET
A Mayfair street known for its private members clubs might seem like an unlikely place for one of the world's most forward-thinking retail stores, but Dover Street has a rich cultural history. As well as the street itself housing several galleries, the DSM premises were formerly home to the ICA, who credit the building with being the birthplace of pop art and Brutalist architecture, the meeting place of the Independent Group, and where, according to their website, "some of the most important shows in the history of post-war British art" were staged, "as well as ground-breaking exhibitions by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock."
E IS FOR: EGALITARIAN
One of the most remarkable elements of DSM is its market mentality, the way that brands come together under one roof with nothing to distinguish a newly-stocked, emerging designer from one of fashion's most established names. As Joffe said in the new issue of AnOther Magazine, "It's true that we don't distinguish between men and women, cheap and expensive, new, strong creation and timeless tradition, and we don't dumb down to the lowest common denominator in terms of the desires and aspirations of our customer."
F IS FOR: FLOORS
The original store was divided across six floors, from the Basement on -1, which housed contemporary menswear, sneakers and IDEA, to the ground floor with its perfume tower, the glittering mirrored Saint Laurent space on the third floor, and the balcony of the Rose Bakery on the fourth. The new Haymarket store will have five stories, with each floor having its own theme and installation. There's "Frankenstein" by Catherine Wagner in the Basement, while on the ground floor will be the iconic DSM hut, the first will have gold panelling conceived by Comme des Garçons with Pirosmani, the second a metal dinosaur designed by Kawakubo, and the third another installation by the designer.

G IS FOR: GINZA
Although a collaborative store in Beijing with Chinese retailers IT was opened in 2011, followed by a New York Store in 2013, the first DSM outside of London was established in Tokyo's Ginza district in 2006. Arranged across seven stories, the store came with replica huts mirroring those in London, and is a place Kawakubo has said that she hopes "fashion becomes fascinating."
H IS FOR: HAYMARKET
"It's bloody huge." So said Adrian Joffe of DSM's new Haymarket store, which safe to say, is something of an upgrade. With a colossal 31,000 square feet of floor space (that's over 20,000 square feet bigger than the original DSM), the shop is located in a listed building a stone's throw from Piccadilly that was built in 1911 and was, for a over a hundred years, the HQ of Burberry. In preparation for the opening, the original doors at the front of the building have been relocated to a more low-key side-street, and photographs of the renovation have been drip-fed via the AnOther Magazine Instagram page. Original inhabits Burberry will be present too, with a range of archive trenches which have been redesigned by Kawakubo.
I IS FOR: IDEA
Founded by David Owen and Angela Hill, IDEA are the beloved booksellers of DSM, who previously took up residence in the shop's Basement. Selling everything from limited edition photobooks by the likes of Vetements, Gosha Rubchinskiy and Willy Vanderperre (to name just a few recent examples), to rare, archival magazines and a slew of influential 'superbooks', they are renowned for their brilliant curation and equally brilliant Instagram captions. If you're in the market for one of their famed tote bags, IDEA will be pride of place in the new Haymarket store, with some exciting (and top secret) new launches planned for 2016.
J IS FOR: JOFFE
Dover Street's patriarch, if such an authoritarian concept could ever be aligned with a place of radicalism. The South African-born Adrian Joffe is the partner of Rei Kawakubo, having joined the company in 1987 and married the designer in 1992. Joffe speaks five languages (including Japanese and Tibetan) and acts as Kawakubo's translator - verbalising her ideas to the press even in her absence. As the president of both Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market, Joffe oversees the company and is responsible for its commercial growth.

"(Rei Kawakubo) can't check all the brands. If it were only things she likes, there'd be nothing in it" - Adrian Joffe

K IS FOR: KAWAKUBO
After almost forty years in fashion, it feels like the inimitable Rei Kawakubo - whose very presence at a fashion show can spark headlines, as it did at Gosha Rubchinskiy's latest runway back in January - really needs no introduction. When it comes to DSM, she is involved on a visual level rather than a day-to-day one, directing the aesthetics and creative point of view of the stores. "She can't check all the brands," Joffe recently told the Financial Times. "If it were only things she likes, there'd be nothing in it."
L IS FOR: LIGHTING
Lighting will be a key part of the new Haymarket store, with Kawakubo personally inviting artists from across the globe to create installations that will go far beyond the practical purpose of illuminating merchandise. A photograph posted to the DSM Instagram shows a series of neon lights suspended like modern stalactites from the ceiling. "They will be works of art in their own right," Joffe told AnOther. "I hope it works."
M IS FOR: MARKET MARKET
Rare, beloved events that come around only every few years, a Market Market is an official DSM jumble sale, where unsold archive stock is piled (literally) into relatively far-flung locations for friends and family to rummage through. This isn't your ordinary fashion clear out or sample sale - one year the theme was Cardboard City, with boxes upon boxes piled up and transformed into art installations (and plenty of Comme for 70% off the RRP, of course).
N IS FOR: NEW BEGINNINGS
Tachiagari, meaning "beginning" or "start" was the name that was formerly given to DSM's twice annual revamp, where the store closes down for a few days, reopening with new collections, designer areas and curated spaces. While stock is updated frequently, this closure was conceived from the beginning as a key part of Kawakubo and Joffe's vision, provoking seasonal changes that go beyond the clothes on the rails and usher in an entire store-wide rebirth.
O IS FOR: ON THE SPEAKERS
Of course, such an environment needs an equally impressive sound system. For the new store, the enigmatic Brooklyn-based sound artist Calx Vive has returned to collaborate with DSM once more, having previously created a score for DSMNY. The concept is to use different audio configurations on each floor, where "textural sounds will be combined and juxtaposed with a carefully curated selection of eclectic music". Thus the music will provide an aural translation of, you guessed it, beautiful chaos. Promised samples and inspirations include: "tunes of the fourth and fifth dimensions", "a gleaming bat cave with filament lights", and "continents that sank but left their mysteries".
P IS FOR: PATTI SMITH
In 2014, Ann Demeulemeester released her richly visual, 1000-plus page monograph with Rizzoli. To celebrate, an intimate launch at DSM was planned, where none other than Patti Smith arrived to do a reading from the introduction she had penned. After paying tribute to her designer friend, thanking her for sending her a treasured gift at a time " of deep loneliness", Smith began to perform - even playing an impromptu number with fellow musical icon PJ Harvey, who was in the crowd.

Q IS FOR: QUEUES
Queues have become something of a regular occurrence at DSM, thanks to the tendency of the brands or designers they stock to attract a certain cult or 'fanboy' following - two cases in point, Gosha Rubchinskiy and Supreme. The launch of the Russian designer-slash-photographer's 2015 book Youth Hotel saw hoards of his fans lining up outside the store, clamouring to get their hands on one of its 500 copies. Supreme's Damien Hirst collab triggered a similar phenomenon, as did the release of the Apple watch last year and Vetements' 2015 photo book.
R IS FOR: RUBCHINSKIY
It's not easy being a designer that operates beyond the "big four" fashion cities. Despite having sold collections at DSM (the first store outside of his native Russia) in the early days of his label, cult favourite Gosha Rubchinskiy ran into difficulty shipping large orders from Moscow. In 2012, he found support in Comme des Garçons, who agreed to help him with production, and since the brand has become an unstoppable force. DSM has become a mecca for teenage Gosha fans, desperate to get a piece of the latest drop ( according to the Business of Fashion, SS16 sold out in two days).
S IS FOR: STEPHEN JONES
In December 2005, Britain's most beloved hatmaker Stephen Jones took over the entire store for an immersive exhibition marking 25 years. Food-inspired hats were up on the third floor by Rose Bakery, while Hitchcockian pieces influenced by The Birds adorned the roof of the Market's tin hut. Along with collaborations for Comme des Garçons, hats on display were drawn from Jones's work for Walter Van Beirendonck, John Galliano, Givenchy, Lanvin and Jean Paul Gaultier, among others. To mark the exhibition, the entire Basement floor was hung with hats, available for only £40 - with £10 going to the M.A.C. Aids fund.
T IS FOR: TEA AND CAKE
Rose Carrarini (Joffe's sister) founded Rose Bakery in Paris with her French husband Jean-Charles in 2002. A daring proposition for a city with a proud culinary reputation - the small café was distinctly British - Rose Bakery proved to be a success. In 2005, they brought it to London, where it took up residence on DSM's sunny third floor, its long line of wooden tables often populated by an intriguing mix of visitors. The bakery (which can also be found in the New York and Ginza stores) will have its own expanded spot in Haymarket complete with a new menu, and has books, bags and aprons available to buy.
U IS FOR: UNCOMPROMISING
For such a renowned fashion institution, it might be surprising to know that DSM wasn't a success to begin with - after all, a concept so innovative took some getting used to (a good few years worth in this case). Still, Joffe and Kawakbo stuck to their guns. That DSM is a place of great creativity doesn't mean it's a free-for-all, however: designers have very strict rules when creating their in-store spaces. Walls cannot touch the inner structure of the building or be above a certain height, Primarily, they have to be cheap, so they can be changed often. But of course, rules are made to be broken...
V IS FOR: VETEMENTS
Since bursting onto the Paris scene for SS15 with a collection of thigh high boots and oversize tailoring, Vetements have gained an unprecedented amount of momentum, becoming one of the industry's most recognisable and buzzed-about brands. They've released a photo book with IDEA, and now to celebrate the new Haymarket store, head designer Demna Gvasalia is working on something new. "We are just starting an amazing project with good exciting energy and prospects," shares Gvasalia in the new issue of AnOther. "It's about to become a long-term partnership."

"We're looking forward. That's what's in our DNA and that's what we try to do. What is the future, what do people want, what can we give them that they don't know they want yet?" - Adrian Joffe

W IS FOR: WINDOWS
The names of the brands who have contributed windows to DSM reads like a fashion encyclopedia. Chanel has moved in with CC-decorated Union Jacks, set designer Gary Card has filled it with some caricature-like busts splattered with fluorescent paint and Dazed 100 designer Molly Goddard has turned it into an artist's studio, filled with paint pots, brushes and canvases. Rei Kawakubo even recreated reinterprets her cult art and photography magazine SIX by installing images from the archives behind the glass. The art and fashion worlds' most brilliant established and emerging talents have all been enlisted to recreate the space.
X IS FOR: X YEARS
For their tenth anniversary in 2014, DSM was focussed on looking to the future rather than the past, dubbing the birthday The Next Ten Years. In-store, designers created special, limited edition products (the range was dubbed Market Street Dover) and the window display featured Nicolas Ghesquière's first collection for Louis Vuitton. A special, limited edition of Werk Magazine was produced by founder Theseus Chan, featuring images of the store that had been reimagined to project a vision of the future. "We're looking forward," Joffe told Dazed. "That's what's in our DNA and that's what we try to do. What is the future, what do people want, what can we give them that they don't know they want yet?"
Y IS FOR: YOUTH
Both Joffe and Kawakubo are ardent supporters of fashion's next generations of talents and they've always put their money where their mouths are by stocking these designers. Whether it's Craig Green, Liam Hodges, Molly Goddard or Phoebe English, DSM has always been one of the places to discover and buy emerging brands. At a time where social media followers contribute to a young designer's credibility, Joffe isn't having any of it. "I don't care (about their social media following). We like things that are sometimes under the radar," he told AnOther. "For us, going back to the beginning, the product is the most important. We can't deceive the customers. We can't buy rubbish just because everybody's talking about it."
Z IS FOR: ZOOLOGY
As well as a selection of the finest products contemporary fashion can offer, the store has also housed various creatures - most famously, octopuses. In 2009, Les Trois Garçons installed a large black octopus with suckers that resembled Comme's infamous polka-dots and last year, Craig Green crafted one out of blue tarpaulin. In 2009, Tim Walker filled the window display with a rookery of penguins and earlier this year, the entrance played host to a glass cabinet containing some taxidermy birds. Strange creatures will also be found in the store's new Haymarket home - the second floor will house an enormous silver dinosaur designed by Rei Kawakubo.

Lead image: DSM photography Ryan O'Toole Collett (@ryanotoolecollett), portrait Chris Rhodes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A definitive guide to Dover Street Market

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fashion, it has been said, is an industry populated by the people who never quite fitted in at school. If that's the case, then Dover Street Market - the radical retail space founded by Rei Kawakubo and Adrian Joffe of Comme des Garçons - is the metaphorical locker room, the place where outsiders can duck out of the real world and be welcomed into an environment full of people just like them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
'At the new Street Market. On 22 March Joffe and his partner, Street to Haymarket, bringing their now world-famous collection of brands with them, from Street Market Haymarket location, we simply carry on trying to make the retail experience stimulating and modern' says Adrian Joffe, co-founder and CEO of Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo, relocated their London outpost from Dover Vetements and Molly Goddard to Phoebe English and Simone Rocha. Here, Joffe talks about the importance of bricks and mortar in a digital age, brand collaborations and the cheapening of the term 'concept store'.

Why did you decide to move the Dover Street Market location to Haymarket?

It was simple. The rents went too high in Dover Street and we were offered a huge building in Haymarket which was three times bigger. We needed more space.
You're known for being one of the first 'concept stores'. What does that description mean to you now and what can people expect from the Haymarket location?
I actually think we are no longer what used to be call a concept store. The term is out of date. What does concept store mean anyway? The word Concept, like the word , has lost all its meaning. At the new in the Haymarket, we simply carry on trying to make the retail experience stimulating and modern, where the relationships between us and the brands we share our space with, as well as between our staff and the customers is of prime importance. We are a simple clothes shop that endeavours to provide a wonderful selection of the best brands, carefully curated, in an atmosphere of beautiful chaos created by a mix of exciting visual experiences in the context of a heritage building given a new lease of life. The interesting details are too numerous to mention, but include works by lighting artists, photographers, artists, exhibitions in the stairwell, a giant metal dinosaur, all of which are integrated into the fabric of the store, and not just there for their own sake, as in a gallery. Brick and mortar still offers something different in 2016, the experience we aim to provide cannot be given on line.
How is the London Haymarket store different to your other locations across the world, such as Beijing and New York?
The building is different, and it is the biggest one of all our stores, so the feeling will be different but still recognisable as a DSM. The types of offerings from the brands are the same but there are much more of them at Haymarket.
You've pioneered collaborations that have shaped fashion, but culture too. Most recently Idea Books. How did your partnership with Idea Books come about?
We started selling their books slowly, and our friendship and collaborations just got deeper and deeper. I have no idea why it's been so popular, we just do what we do. We don't do market research or have a marketing team. Perhaps people like coming out and talking to people and seeing amazing unexpected things and sharing a point of view.
What have been your favourite collaborations to date?
Every collaboration we do is done with sincerity and intensity. We just do the ones that feel right and have meaning.. nothing forced or contrived. And always with people we like. We want to continue with these collaborations in the future, get stronger and stronger, maintain a successful business, keep moving forwards, and open one or two more stores max, in a few years perhaps.
Doverstreetmarket.com

Grace Banks is the Editor-in-Chief of SLEEK Magazine and writes about international current affairs and culture. She contributes to The Guardian, New York Times, BBC Rad...

Read More

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Six Questions with Dover Street Market CEO Adrian Joffe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dover Street Market Haymarket, image courtesy Dover Street Market 'At the new Dover Street Market Haymarket location, we simply carry on trying to make the retail experience stimulating and modern' says Adrian Joffe, co-founder and CEO of Dover Street Market. On 22 March Joffe and his partner, Comme des Garçons founder [...]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Front Row

Image

Employees of Dover Street Market New York, as seen in the recent issue of Style.com/Print. Credit Credit Ari Marcopoulos

THE SCRUFFY YOUNG MAN in the Nike sweatpants is there to help you with that Greg Lauren one-of-a-kind $1,250 cape.

"If you want to dye your hair green and get a tattoo on the side of your head, you can" said the young man, Anatoly Kirichenko, 26, referring to his at-the-office dress code.

At Dover Street Market, there is the joyful feeling that the inmates have taken over the asylum. It is one that has propelled the Kips Bay store, in its first months in business, to become one of New York's most esoteric and inspiring shopping experiences.

Luxury shopping isn't always. There is no shortage of New York establishments eager to sell you a five-figure dress or a three-figure T-shirt. But often, the service runs hot or cold, and uninspiring.

"Either you went to a store and they just can't be bothered with you and you get no attention whatsoever, or it's just the opposite, they're over the top and in your face," said James Gilchrist, the Scottish-born general manager of Dover Street Market New York.

Dover Street Market, with outposts in London (where its Mayfair address gave the stores their name), Tokyo and now New York, is owned by Comme des Garçons, which may explain both its emphasis on customer service - a particular obsession of the Japanese, Mr. Gilchrist noted wryly - and its encouragement of self-expression. Its hidden charm may in fact be its heterogeneous staff: punk rockers, young designers and former gallerists in addition to the usual career sales representatives.

Walking into the store can feel like entering an exotic aviary. The men and women on hand to sell Rolexes customized by Bamford, Giambattista Valli gowns and Supreme bucket hats come from as far afield as Tokyo; Seoul, South Korea; Brisbane, Australia; and Chanute, Kan. They are dressed and dyed following their own inclinations, and anyone hoping to find a piece that a staff member is wearing on a nearby rack may be out of luck.

"We hired individuals with strong style," Mr. Gilchrist said. "Why change that? A lot of what these kids wear, we are not necessarily selling. Why mess with something that's great already?"

Selecting the team (call it "curating" if you must) was labor intensive. Mr. Gilchrist estimated he interviewed 400 people for the 40 positions.

But attention is being paid. Fashion magazines have raced to court the staff, perhaps unsurprisingly since the sales floor already had the look of a fashion spread. The new issue of the biannual Style.com/Print includes a portfolio, shot by Ari Marcopoulos, of the entire team. Its editors reportedly beat a Parisian magazine to the punch. (I worked at Style.com until February but was not involved in this issue. I, too, was beaten to the punch.)

So they have arrived via clothing lines, like Elizabeth Ammerman and Eric Schlosberg, who design the upstart collection that bears both their names, or Zach Dierks, a designer for the label Luar Zepol. Mr. Kirichenko photographs fashion for Oyster magazine. Logan Charap came from the TriBeCa brunch-hall Bubby's; Liana Mack, from Dia: Beacon; Jason Avey, from Saks and Ralph Lauren.

"Every job I've had has prepared me for success here," said George Oh, who works on the fifth floor. "I feel like an astronaut that's finally made it to another galaxy."

Added Nina Hahn, 20: "I feel that my eyes are being trained to see everything in a Comme des Garçons way, in a sense." (Training employees to speak in a Comme des Garçons way evidently takes longer. The company would allow its staff to respond to questions only via email.)

If they are enriched by the store, the store is likewise enriched by them. Entering their orbit is an experience one is tempted to describe as "only in New York."

As Style.com introduced its portfolio: "Give us your stylish, your chic, your idiosyncratically layered masses yearning to sell Yang Li, Simone Rocha and Supreme."

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page E4 of the New York edition with the headline: Now Turning Heads: The Sales Staff. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
At Dover Street Market, the Sales Staff Is Encouraged to Show Off Their Personal Style

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Front Row THE SCRUFFY YOUNG MAN in the Nike sweatpants is there to help you with that Greg Lauren one-of-a-kind $1,250 cape. "If you want to dye your hair green and get a tattoo on the side of your head, you can" said the young man, Anatoly Kirichenko, 26, referring to his at-the-office dress code.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
bpdfinalpdf - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The tech that could help clean dirty air

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A new system at London Marylebone station is helping to remove harmful gases from the environment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Earth Day has now reached its 49th year, and according to the Earth Day Network (EDN) over one billion people in 192 countries are thought to have taken part in this year's event.

Celebrated every year on April 22, the global day of environmental action is thought to be the largest secular observance in the world.

Each Earth Day, individuals and organisations from across the globe participate in action intended to world towards a healthier environment for future generations.

When did Earth Day get started?

The celebration marks the anniversary of the birth of the environmental movement in 1970.

Modern environmentalism is largely credited as starting with the publication of Rachel Carson's bestselling book Silent Spring - documented the effects of the indiscriminate use of pesticides - in 1962.

After selling 500,000 copies in 24 countries, the book sparked a growing public awareness of environmental matters that crystallised in the first Earth Day.

The initial concept came to US senator Gaylord Nelson after witnessing the impact of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California.

Nelson wanted to channel the energy of the anti-war movement into action for the environment, and this culminated in 20 million Americans taking to the streets to demonstrate for a environment

What has Earth Day achieved over the years?

The first Earth Day united Americans from across the political spectrum, and within a year the action had led to the formation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts.

Earth Day 1990 was credited with giving a significant boost to recycling efforts worldwide, paved the way for the 1992 UN Earth Summit.

At another milestone, Earth Day 2000 chose to address the growing issue of global warming and the switch to clean energy sources.

For the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in 2010, the network behind the celebration launched a campaign to plant one billion trees, a target that was achieved in 2012.

In 2016, leaders from 175 countries used Earth Day as the backdrop for signing the historic Paris climate agreement, which aims to stop the planet from warming 2C above pre-industrial levels.

What does Earth Day look like today?

Earth Day has turned its attention to big environmental issue of the moment: plastic pollution.

Its goals include supporting efforts around the world to eliminate single-use plastics, and drive support for tighter regulations concerning plastic disposal.

"EDN will educate millions of people about the health and other risks associated with the use and disposal of plastics, including pollution of our oceans, water, and wildlife, and about the growing body of evidence that decomposing plastics are creating serious global problems," said the organisation's president Kathleen Rogers, in a statement.

"EDN has built a multi-year campaign to End Plastic Pollution.

"Our goals include ending single-use plastics, promoting alternatives to fossil fuel-based materials, promoting 100 per cent recycling of plastics, corporate and government accountability and changing human behaviour concerning plastics."

In the lead up to the events 50th anniversary, EDN is also launching an "ambitious set of goals to shape the future of 21st century environmentalism".

What is International Mother Earth Day?

International Mother Earth Day is similar to Earth Day, as it is also celebrated on 22 April every year.

The day, adopted in 2009, invites "all Member States, the organisations of the United Nations system, international, regional and subregional organisations, civil society, non-governmental organisations, and relevant stakeholders to observe and raise awareness of International Mother Earth Day, as appropriate," according to the United Nations.

The biggest focus of the day is climate change, which will be discussed during the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of International Mother Earth Day.

On 22 April, the ninth Interactive Dialogue of the General Assembly on Harmony with Nature will be held to discuss "ensuring inclusive, equitable and quality education on taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts and to inspire citizens and societies to reconsider how they interact with the natural world in the context of sustainable development, poverty eradication and climate justice, so as to ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in Harmony with Nature".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is Earth Day and how do people mark it around the world?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Earth Day has now reached its 49th year, and according to the Earth Day Network (EDN) over one billion people in 192 countries are thought to have taken part in this year's event. Celebrated every year on April 22, the global day of environmental action is thought to be the largest secular observance in the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Drinks bottles are the most prevalent form of plastic pollution in European waterways, it has been revealed.

According to the Plastic Rivers report from Earthwatch Europe and Plastic Oceans UK, plastic bottles make up 14 per cent of all identifiable plastic litter items found in European freshwater environments.

Meanwhile, food wrappers (which includes crisp packets, chocolate bars, and sweet wrappers) account for 12 per cent of visible items of rubbish, with cigarette butts and food takeaway containers accounting for nine and six per cent, respectively.

"The Plastic Rivers report shows that the products we buy every day are contributing to the problem of ocean plastic," said Jo Ruxton, chief executive of Plastic Oceans UK.

"Our discarded plastic enters rivers from litter generated by our on-the-go lifestyle and items we flush down toilets. This throwaway approach is having much more serious consequences and the report shows really simple ways to avoid this problem and stop plastic pollution."

The analysis involved authors examining nine studies of pollution in freshwater sources across the UK and Europe and ranking types of macroplastics - relatively large particles of plastic found especially in the marine environment - by their prevalence.

The average percentage of litter that was plastic was 71 per cent and out of the 193,238 littered items counted, 37.5 per cent were consumer-related plastic items frequently encountered in daily life.

In addition to plastic bottles, cups and sanitary items (including wet wipes, nappies and tampons), were also found to be a prevalent source of litter.

In the UK, the average person uses 150 plastic water bottles a year of which 6.9 per cent are littered.

Meanwhile, 13.2 billion plastic-stemmed cotton buds are used in England each year with 10 per cent being flushed down the toilet.

In addition to identifying the top 10 plastic pollutants in rivers and lakes, the report also offers advice on the best ways to reduce their prevalence.

Actions consumers are advised to take include not flushing sanitary items, using reusable cutlery when getting takeaway food or for stirring drinks, and using cotton buds with paper sticks.

In October 2018, the European Parliament voted for an extensive ban on single-use plastics to stop pollution entering the world's oceans.

Products including plastic plates, cutlery, straws and cotton buds will all be eradicated from 2021 under the plans.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Drinks bottles are now biggest plastic threat for oceans and rivers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Drinks bottles are the most prevalent form of plastic pollution in European waterways, it has been revealed. According to the Plastic Rivers report from Earthwatch Europe and Plastic Oceans UK, plastic bottles make up 14 per cent of all identifiable plastic litter items found in European freshwater environments.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in light of her work pioneering work against climate change.

Three Norwegian lawmakers put forward the 16-year-old activist, who was named one of 's Most Influential Teens of 2019, for the prize.

"We have nominated Greta because the climate threat may be one of the most important causes of war and conflict," parliamentary representative Freddy Andre Oevstegaard told Norwegian media outlet .

"The massive movement Greta has set in motion is a very important peace contribution," he added.

Thunberg's Nobel Prize nomination comes days before the global climate strike on Friday 15 March, which is inspired by her #FridaysForFuture students' movement, to demand action to prevent further climate change and global warming.

On Tuesday, Thunberg tweeted that nearly 100 countries will be involved in the protest.

A recent U.N. report stated that global temperatures could rise by 1.5°C - a threshold scientists believe the planet cannot surpass without experiencing damaging effects of climate change.

The report explained that temperatures have already risen 1°C and the planet could reach the 1.5°C threshold as early as 2030 if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate.

In August 2018, Thunberg started to skip school on Fridays to protest about climate change outside Sweden's Parliament with a hand-written sign that read "SCHOOL STRIKE FOR CLIMATE". The teenager did not return to school until the Swedish general election on 9 September.

Since her first strike, Thunberg has become renowned around the world for her activism.

In December 2018, the student delivered an impassioned speech at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Poland and called out governmental officials for not doing enough to halt climate change.

"You are not mature enough to tell it like is," she said at the COP24 summit.

"Even that burden you leave to us children. But I don't care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet."

A month later, at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Thunberg concluded her speech by urging leader present at the event to "behave like our house is on fire, because it is."

During her speech she told attendees, which included singer Bono and anthropologist Jane Goodall: "Some people, some companies, some decision-makers in particular, have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money. And I think many of you here today belong to that group of people."

The deadline for Nobel Peace Prize nominations was 1 February.

According to the organisation's website, there are 301 candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2019 out of which 223 are individuals and 78 are organisations.

The Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony will take place on 10 December in Oslo, Norway, where the Nobel Laureates receive their Nobel Prize.

To date, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize Laureate is women's education activist Malala Yousafzai, who was 17 years old when she received the 2014 Peace Prize.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
16 year old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in light of her work pioneering work against climate change. Three Norwegian lawmakers put forward the 16-year-old activist, who was named one of 's Most Influential Teens of 2019, for the prize.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization developing advanced technologies to rid the oceans of plastic. We aim to remove 90% of the floating plastic with the help of ocean cleanup systems and river interception technologies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020 and has now entered an 11-month transition period.

During this period the UK effectively remains in the EU's customs union and single market and continues to obey EU rules.

However, it is no longer part of the political institutions. So, for example, there are no longer any British MEPs in the European Parliament.
Future trade deal
The first priority will be to negotiate a trade deal with the EU. The UK wants as much access as possible for its goods and services to the EU.

But the government has made clear that the UK must leave the customs union and single market and end the overall jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

Time is short. The EU could take weeks to agree a formal negotiating mandate - all the remaining 27 member states and the European Parliament have to be in agreement. That means formal talks might only begin in March.

The government has ruled out any form of extension to the transition period.

If no trade deal has been agreed and ratified by the end of the year, then the UK faces the prospect of tariffs on exports to the EU.

The prime minister has argued that as the UK is completely aligned to EU rules, the negotiation should be straightforward. But critics have pointed out that the UK wishes to have the freedom to diverge from EU rules so it can do deals with other countries - and that will make negotiations more difficult.

It's not just a trade deal that needs to be sorted out. The UK must agree how it is going to co-operate with the EU on security and law enforcement. The UK is set to leave the European Arrest Warrant scheme and will have to agree a replacement. It must also agree deals in a number of other areas where co-operation is needed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020 and has now entered an 11-month transition period. During this period the UK effectively remains in the EU's customs union and single market and continues to obey EU rules. However, it is no longer part of the political institutions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The US Ambassador to the UK says negotiating a trade deal post-Brexit would be "much more difficult" if the UK is in a customs union with the EU.

Woody Johnson also said it would be "more challenging" for the UK "to get control of [its] own trade policy".

But he said President Donald Trump is still hopeful doing a "robust, big, very generous trade deal" with the UK after Brexit.

President Trump will come to the UK for a state visit in June.

He and First Lady Melania Trump will be guests of the Queen at Buckingham Palace, and attend a ceremony in Portsmouth to mark 75 years since the D-Day landings.

He will also have official talks with Prime Minister Theresa May at Downing Street.

A number of campaign groups have already said they will hold protests during the trip - set for 3 to 5 June.

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has also criticised the visit, claiming it will be "a giant waste of taxpayers' money" as the US will never agree a trade deal with the UK unless a solution is found for the Irish border after Brexit.

But Mrs May said it was an "opportunity to strengthen our already close relationship in areas such as trade, investment, security and defence, and to discuss how we can build on these ties in the years ahead".

Last time President Trump came to the UK on a "working visit" in July 2018, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in central London.

He managed to avoid the crowds by meeting the Queen at Windsor Castle and Mrs May at Chequers, and travelling by helicopter.

But Mr Johnson said President Trump was looking forward to returning and was "never apprehensive about anything".

The Ambassador said the president would not be kept out of view as he liked to be "out with the people", and talks between the two countries would continue "despite protests or anything else".

He added: "The British know this is a very, very critical relationship to the future of Britain, and so welcoming the president here is a really good symbol for the future prosperity and security of this country."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
US-UK deal 'difficult' with customs union

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The US Ambassador to the UK says negotiating a trade deal post-Brexit would be "much more difficult" if the UK is in a customs union with the EU. Woody Johnson also said it would be "more challenging" for the UK "to get control of [its] own trade policy".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Microsoft has seen its stock market value top $1 trillion (£774bn) after reporting better-than-expected sales and profits.

The US tech giant passed the mark briefly on Thursday, before its share price fell back.

It makes the company one of only three firms to have touched the $1tn mark, the others being Apple and Amazon.

Microsoft's stock has climbed by about a third in the past year, helped by the growth of its cloud business.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Microsoft hits $1 trillion market valuation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Microsoft has seen its stock market value top $1 trillion (£774bn) after reporting better-than-expected sales and profits. The US tech giant passed the mark briefly on Thursday, before its share price fell back. It makes the company one of only three firms to have touched the $1tn mark, the others being Apple and Amazon.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Susannah Frankel speaks to Adrian Joffe and collaborators past and present about Dover Street Market's pioneering ethos, accompanied by portraits of the store's close-knit family of staff in their soon-to-be-completed Haymarket home

Lead Image From left: Hitomi, Bronte, Si and Ken

"For Dover Street Market I think about making a new food, as a shop. I cook together various kinds of materials - such as clothes. Comme des Garçons would become the main ingredient. Then I mix in a few other elements as spice - interior design, furniture, etc. Sometimes I end up adding the wrong - mistaken - ingredients, but when mixed in all together with the other things, the whole has an expansive taste. This is my work." - Rei Kawakubo

In the September 2004 issue of Dazed & Confused, Rei Kawakubo said the following to me about the soon-to-open Dover Street Market: "In Japan recently, Burberry opened a multi-million dollar flagship store. It will be the antithesis of that. Fortunately we haven't got a lot of money so we can't afford marble floors. We have to find an idea that won't cost too much."

And so they did. Dover Street Market's "beautiful chaos" - as Kawakubo herself described it back then - has transformed the retail market in much the same way as her label Comme des Garçons has the fashion aesthetic. There is a certain perverse logic, therefore, that following further openings in Ginza and New York, London's Dover Street Market - which takes its name from the quiet thoroughfare where it has lived for almost 12 years - is expanding, moving to a 35,000 square foot space on the Haymarket, that was built in 1911 by the architect Walter Cave, and known, for almost a century, as the Burberry building. It was, famously, that very brand's flagship store.

In fact, Burberry moved out in 2007. Its maverick new occupants will open their doors in March. The powers that be have moved the central entrance away from the crowds of tourists and gridlocked traffic - the building is a stone's throw south of Piccadilly Circus - to the more peaceful Orange Street, at the side. They've poured concrete over the wooden floors (they weren't original and were marked with tar) to maintain the industrial feel that characterises the older space.

"It's bloody huge," Adrian Joffe, president of Comme des Garçons and Rei Kawakubo's husband, said when we first talked about the project, right after the deal had been signed, in December 2014. "I have no idea how we're going to fill it." But fill it they will, with the work of those they have long collaborated with, from established names including Azzedine Alaïa and Raf Simons, to younger designers Molly Goddard, Phoebe English and Gosha Rubchinskiy, to jewellers Gaia Repossi and Delfina Delettrez, and big-name international brands that have, maybe unexpectedly, come into the fold - Gucci and Saint Laurent to name just two.

There will be surprise new entries also. Veteran British designers Sir Paul Smith and Margaret Howell are joining the Dover Street Market roster; so too is Demna Gvasalia, who is working on a project for the store with Vetements. Cult French cosmetics brand, Buly, which dates back to the 18th century, has also been invited into the store. "The product is wonderful," says Joffe when we meet at the space in October 2015. "We will be the only place in London that carries it." He is not prepared to divulge the full list of designers and retailers set to make their Dover Street Market debuts - "We have to keep some secrets back," he says.

"It's a listed building so we're keeping the structure as it is," Joffe continues, and that includes a quite magnificent grand spiral staircase, currently being restored. "Sometimes we build a wall in front of it because it's easier to make the individual spaces, but we can't touch the ceiling. And we're keeping the skylights. It will be the first store Rei designs that doesn't have false ceilings and down light. Generally, she doesn't like the outside interfering with the inside."

A local architect has been employed to liaise with the council, but the design of the place will be overseen in its entirety by Kawakubo herself. "Rei is the inspiration, the spirit, the overall creator of Dover Street Market," Joffe affirms. "Everything visual and design-led is overseen by her. We do our best not to disappoint her in our choice of brands and the way we run the business." With that in mind, as far as lighting is concerned, and given the aforementioned regulations, she has invited different artists painstakingly sourced from all over the world to design installations with complete creative control. "They'll do the lighting as if it's for a store, but they will be works of art in their own right. I hope it works," Joffe says.

The basic concept, though, "is to take the existing Dover Street Market, pick it up and move it down the road to here but, because it's three times the size, to stretch it out. People love it and are familiar with it and we want to bring that familiarity here so as not to discombobulate people. People hang out at Dover Street and we want them to hang out here, too. So it will be a cross between the very familiar - we're bringing the perfume tower and the huts - and the new."

Of course, there is also a financial incentive to operating in this way. True to her word, and to her philosophy with her own stores, Kawakubo allows designers to curate their own spaces only within reason. With that in mind, the single most stringent requirement - which counteracts that of all other big name brands operating globally today - is that those involved spend as little as possible. And if that seems, on the face of it, to question the world's view of what luxury and status may be, then that is entirely deliberate. After all, right from the start of her career, the indefatigably modest Kawakubo has done just that. "Just because people spend a lot of money doesn't mean it's good," says Joffe. "We like people to change things too, to go with the flow. Make it cheap and keep changing it." Other rules include a restriction on building any wall above 250 centimetres, not being able to paint directly onto that wall, and not being able to touch the outer structure of the building. Wilful? Yes, and who would expect anything else? "You have to have rules," Joffe says. "That's one of the paradoxes and among the most interesting things. You have independence and freedom. Rei likes that for herself and likes to give it to everybody else. But you have to fight for independence and freedom. So within that there are very strong strictures. She gives herself those rules in order to burst through them, and hopes that others will do that too."

Such is Dover Street Market's stature today that it would be only too easy to view it retrospectively as an overnight success. But that is not, in fact, the case. "It took five years for people to get used to it," Joffe explains. "It was a struggle in the beginning because people didn't understand it. I remember Mr Burstein [who with his wife, Joan, launched Browns, among the original stockists of Comme des Garçons, way back when] came in on the first day we opened and said: 'This is not going to work, it's so confusing. Where's the ladies'? Where's the men's? Is this for rich people or poor people? What are you saying here?' But the idea was exactly that, to break it up and do something new, to do a market where people could do what they want. We ignore all established rules of retailing. It's true that we don't distinguish between men and women, cheap and expensive, new, strong creation and timeless tradition, and we don't dumb down to the lowest common denominator in terms of the desires and aspirations of our customer."

"We work with TV people, film people, theatre people, dancers and artists for installations rather than shop people," says Dover Street Market vice president Dickon Bowden, who has been with the company since it opened. "We've never worked with shop people. We have the best team. It's about the team and the culture of the company. People always say that."

Dover Street Market special projects manager Richard Windsor is a case in point: his background is in fine art and curation, not retail. "Of course, everything is directed by Rei and Adrian," he says. "But we curate the shop and keep it alive. It's different to the way every other retailer works. It's definitely visually different, that's for sure."

That difference goes at least some way towards explaining why some of fashion's most high-profile protagonists - among them Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Dior - have in the past collaborated with Dover Street Market. There is both a liberty and certain integrity that comes with the association with both the store and Comme des Garçons that not only sheds a different light on such household names, but also brings a new customer to their offering.

But, says Joffe, "Rei always likes a synergy with the collaborations she's done. Collaborating with artists, fashion designers, architects, sculptors or whatever, it's in a synergetic way. It's not like we give you a space and you plonk your work there. It's all part of the whole. It's interlinked, functional, changing the way people do things." He continues: "We don't just have a window for an artist, say, and that's it. We're not a gallery. There has to be a connection with the store. When there's no connection to the store, no accidents are possible. And we love accidents. People come and ask, 'Can we have a plan?' And we say there is no plan. Rei likes to give people as little information as possible."

In the end, for all its anti-establishment stance, Dover Street Market must succeed commercially to stay alive. "We don't like to compromise, of course," Joffe says. "That's not a word we like at Comme des Garçons or Dover Street Market. Rei doesn't understand what it means. Of course we are very aware we have to be financially successful, otherwise there is no point, but we hope to succeed without having to compromise and that we find that famous balance between the creative and the commercial. They are not mutually exclusive."

For more than 40 years, Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons have worked tirelessly to prove just that. And, since its opening more than a decade ago, so too has Dover Street Market, its gifted collaborators and entire extraordinary staff. Here, we canvass the opinions of some of its most highly-valued residents.

Michèle Lamy, creative consultant and designer, and wife and business partner of Rick Owens
"Oh, there are so many reasons for me to feel at home at Dover Street Market. I like flea markets, so to be with a lot of people, where there is the balance. To be here is to be with your peers, to be with who you like, even if it's not for the clothes. Because you also find artists. I think Rei is the most genius artist and businesswoman. We're all super happy to be here. It feels like being part of a family. It's not like selling. I'm not trying to sell things. But it's working on that level too and that's fantastic. And look at everybody who comes here. They look clever. They look good."

Chitose Abe, creative director and founder of Sacai
"Dover Street Market is a place where I can be free to express myself. When Ms Kawakubo invited me to come here I remember feeling excited to work with Comme des Garçons again, as it was the first time I'd done so since leaving the company. In the beginning I was designing a special capsule collection called Sacai GEM for them, but now they have a dedicated space for Sacai that allows me to create the Sacai world for the customers who come and visit."

Gosha Rubchinskiy, streetwear designer and photographer
"Comme des Garçons is always the top for me. It's a legend and very present. They talk about serious things with great humour. I was very happy to have Dover Street Market as the first place where I started to sell outside Russia five years ago. I am looking forward to the new space in London."

Alessandro Michele, creative director of Gucci
"Genius. I met her for tea last September close to Place Vendôme in Paris. Can you imagine that? Face to face with Rei Kawakubo, a fashion legend. At a certain point she told me that she can easily recognise a punk soul - a gentle one - in my work and that she was sure that I have tattoos, and it's true. She is not only a designer, she is a philosopher. She has the ability to always force you to question everything. Her outfits have a huge standing and they continue to make a statement across decades. To me, Dover Street Market means unconventional fashion yet straightforward retail. It's a place capable of constantly changing itself without losing its appeal and creativity, and a place capable of envisioning other brands."

Maureen Doherty, co-founder of London boutique Egg, which began its collaboration with Dover Street Market in 2011
"Running, jumping and full of laughter and freedom, Dover Street Market has opened a door to Wonderland. It gives freedom not only to famous and established designers, but space to new and young makers. This unrestrictive way of being has completely set it apart from all the large stores usually run by buyers with powerful personal views, intent on attracting a 'particular' client. DSM is a place to discover what is happening in the world of fashion at every level. Our working relationship has always been a joy. Rei has set the stage for openness and individual expression. This is rare and essential if you wish for the best from someone. Our collaboration is one of mutual respect and openness."

Delfina Delettrez, jewellery designer
"Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons are proof that you can create an amazing and exciting business while keeping total integrity and vision. I love that Rei Kawakubo is a deep and discreet woman in that vision. Dover Street Market was one of the first stores in the world to support and believe in me. They are part of my evolution and accompanied me along my route, having faith in me and representing my brand in London, New York and Tokyo. They are every designer's dream. It is inspiring how they are always excited about new ideas and open and ready to do new projects. And it is a place where the designer doesn't need to find a compromise between natural creativity and business. It's a place where even the most eccentric ideas are welcome and find the perfect customer or viewer."

Stephen Jones, milliner and founder of Stephen Jones Millinery
"Rei Kawakubo is probably the most important, innovative designer working today. It's very interesting that she believes the creation of her company and her retail environment is as important as the creation of clothes. To me, Dover Street Market feels like home. Not only because of all the people involved with it, but it was Dover Street Market that hosted my quarter-century retrospective exhibition in 2005. I also think if you've shopped at DSM, why would you want to shop anywhere else?"

Raf Simons, designer of the eponymous menswear brand and former creative director of Christian Dior
"Rei, like Comme des Garçons, like Dover Street Market, says, 'Fuck you all, I do what I want!' In today's fashion system that is ultimately admirable. Her female voice and opinion - like the artists Isa Genzken, Rosemarie Trockel and Cindy Sherman - is needed in our male-dominated fashion system."

Rose Carrarini, British chef and co-owner of Rose Bakery at Dover Street Market
"The names Comme des Garçons and Rei Kawakubo mean inspirational and always looking forward. Dover Street Market is a place where I always feel comfortable to shop. There's always something new. Working with Dover Street Market has been about a natural understanding, and therefore so easy. The way customers love it makes me happy. It started in a rush but I always felt it was the right place for Rose Bakery. Explaining what's 'right' is impossible. It just works. And working with Dover Street Market has been a perfect combination of ideas."

Demna Gvasalia, head designer and spokesperson for Vetements, and recently appointed artistic director of Balenciaga
"Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons: non-conformism, experimentation, intelligence and poetry. Dover Street Market: shopping. We are just starting an amazing project with good exciting energy and prospects. It's about to become a long-term partnership."

Michael Costiff , designer, owner of World Archive, and founder of infamous London club night Kinky Gerlinky
"I was flattered to be invited to curate a space at Dover Street Market in 2005. I had always worked independently and never for a large company. Little did I imagine that all these years later I would have spaces in all the Dover Street Markets worldwide. I challenge myself constantly to find rare and unusual items and am happy that my hard work is so appreciated. For the launch of my book, Michael & Gerlinde's World: Pages from a Diary, I took over the window for almost four weeks. My installation was much enjoyed by customers, friends and passers-by, and I signed many copies of my book there. It was a special and happy time for me. Rei knows and trusts my taste so I'm given pretty much a free rein. Being surrounded by so many renowned and creative designers certainly keeps me on my toes. My interests are eclectic and precise, so they have become quite used to me often changing things around. It must be just right. There is always something new to see at Dover Street Market and I like to make sure there is always something new to see at World Archive, too."

JW Anderson, fashion designer
"For me, Rei as Comme des Garçons represents the sharpest of modernity outside the rest. Dover Street Market is a store that I have the most personal relationship with. When I first moved to London it had just opened. I was at university and it was the newest way of shopping, and that still stands today. It has a curated space and everything feels personal and considered. I really enjoy working with Dover Street Market, because fundamentally they give you the parameters and then let you express yourself in whatever way you want. There are no other stores in the world that let you do that, let you talk in terms of concepts. Both Rei and Adrian are visionaries in the way they let creative people breathe. Since the beginning of my career, Dover Street has backed me. This, for me, is where I feel our first JW Anderson stores were situated."

Gaia Repossi, jewellery designer and artistic director of Repossi
"At Dover Street Market, branding is pushed to its purest form of abstraction. That feels lost today with impersonal junk spaces surrounding us. I was told to consider the London shop as if it were my own, and it was beyond flattering to hear that. I felt like I always had an intimate address in London with Dover Street Market that seemed very personal. I also recall having Rei and her team asking me to draw how I imagined my space in her shop would be, which was a great sign of recognition. Later on, Rei Kawakubo-san herself came to see one of our jewellery presentations and I was very honoured. I was first carried in their shop more than eight years ago, and since then our worlds have combined and our presence has grown gradually. We are planning a stunning new project with them for the new London space and the other two stores next year."

Simone Rocha, fashion designer
"I was obsessed with Dover Street Market and Comme as a teenager. So it was a dream when Adrian and Rei came to see the small collection of plastic, lace and tulle dresses that I showed off-schedule in London. Then the collection went into the stores - they were the very first stockists. My second season, I was asked to do a window. We were a very small team, driven by creativity and working with our hands. We built a giant, living foliage sculpture, just like the overgrown lane behind my house in Ireland. It was made of moss and eucalyptus, so the smell was intoxicating. We made it in my tiny studio, with dry flowers and foliage hanging from the ceiling. We moved it into the window over two days and it was such an intimate and creative experience; very removed from the typical fashion window, which made it so special. We still work with Dover Street Market in this way: creativity and innovation always come first."

DSM staff: Agne Norvilaite, Bronte Schwier, Electra Dimitriadou, Elisa Brown, Evelyne Birbaumer, Hannah Seaton, Hitomi Takahashi, Kai Evill, Ken Watanabe, Leo Liang, Michal Kozlowski, Olga Kaminska, Oliwia Golawska, Polly Pan, Shenggy Butler, Si Liu, Tori Rodway, Wiggy Wong. Hair Massimo Gamba at Atomo Management; Make-up Lucy Burt at D+V Management using MAC Cosmetics; Photographic assistants James Donovan, Eddie Blagbrough; Styling assistants Chloe Grace Press, Jayme Miller, Rebecca Perlmutar; Hair assistant Delphine Bonnet; Make-up assistants Louise Hall, Laura Magennis; Production John Haywood at Mini Title; Special thanks to Daisy Hoppen This article appears in the S/S16 edition of AnOther Magazine. Dover Street Market Haymarket will open its doors at 11am on the 19th of March, 2016.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Your First Look at the New Dover Street Market London

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Susannah Frankel speaks to Adrian Joffe and collaborators past and present about Dover Street Market's pioneering ethos, accompanied by portraits of the store's close-knit family of staff in their soon-to-be-completed Haymarket home Lead Image From left: Hitomi, Bronte, Si and Ken "For Dover Street Market I think about making a new food, as a shop.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Reasons Why Dover Street Market Is the Best Fashion Boutique on EarthThe Up-and-Coming and Hard to Find Brands

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In honor of Dover Street Market's 10th anniversary, take a look at 10 reasons why DSM is one of the best stores in the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What are the 5 P's of Marketing?

The 5 P's of Marketing - Product, Price, Promotion, Place, and People - are key marketing elements used to position a business strategically. The 5 P's of Marketing, also known as the marketing mix, are variables that and owners control to satisfy customers in their target market, add value to their business, and help differentiate their business from .

Product

Product refers to the products and services offered by a business. Product decisions include function, packaging, appearance, warranty, quality, etc.

Customers need to understand the features, advantages, and benefits that can be enjoyed by buying the good or service. When thinking about a product, consider the key features, benefits, and the needs and wants of customers.

Price

Price refers to the pricing strategy for products and services and how it will affect customers. Pricing decisions do not include just the selling price, but also discounts, payment arrangements, credit terms, or any other price-matching services offered.

When determining a pricing strategy, it is important to consider the business's position in the current marketplace. For example, if the business is advertised as a high-quality provider of mechanical equipment, the product pricing should reflect that.

Promotion

Promotion refers to the activities that make the business more known to consumers. It includes items such as sponsorships, advertising, and public relations activities.

Since promotion costs can be substantial, it is essential to conduct a break-even analysis CVP Analysis Guide when making promotion decisions. It is important to understand the value of a customer and whether it is worth conducting promotions to acquire them.

Place

Place refers to where the product/service of the business is seen, made, sold, or distributed. In essence, place decisions are associated with distribution channels and ways of getting the product to key target customers.

It is important to consider how accessible the product or service is and ensure that customers can easily find you. The product or service must be available to customers at the right time, at the right place, and in the right quantity.

For example, a business may want to provide their products over an e-commerce site, at a retail store, or through a third-party distributor.

People

People refer to the staff, salespeople, and those who work for the business. People decisions are usually centered around customer service - how do you want your employees to be perceived by customers?

Example of the 5 P's of Marketing

John is considering operating a jet ski shop catering to travelers and tourists. To position his business, John may consult the 5 Ps of marketing in the following manner:

Product: By the hour jet ski rentals for people who are in the city for a short duration of time. A limited liability form to be signed by people who participate in the service and a monetary deposit in case of damages.

Price: Cheap jet ski trips to cater to the budget constraints of travelers and tourists. A 10% discount on jet ski trips when referred by a travel agency.

Promotions: A Facebook page, Instagram page, and a Twitter handle to promote the business. Also, paid promotions on travel agency websites.

Place: An easy to access location from existing transit systems.

People: Friendly staff members who love meeting other travelers and offer exceptional customer service.

Related Readings

Thank you for reading CFI's guide to the 5 P's of marketing. To continue your development as a world-class financial analyst, these additional resources will be helpful:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 P's of Marketing - Learn More About the Marketing Mix

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The 5 P's of Marketing - Product, Price, Promotion, Place, and People - are key marketing elements used to position a business strategically.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
From the moment of discovery to making a purchase, every part of the mobile shopping experience should feel seamless. Instagram makes it easy for online shoppers to fall in love with your products and quickly make them their own.

of shopping enthusiasts turn to Instagram for product discovery ¹.

Give your audience a simpler way to shop.

See, tap, shop.

Tag your products in photos, videos and stories, and turn any of your posts into an opportunity to shop. Once they tap, people will see richer descriptions, additional imagery and related items from your store.

Connect with future customers.

Your shopping posts can be shared on Explore, where 200 million accounts ² visit daily. Shopping on Instagram helps people discover your business and product offerings, even if they aren't your followers today.

Shop now or save for later.

When the moment is right, people can tap to visit your mobile site and complete their purchase. Or with the Save feature, they can bookmark your products into personalized collections to revisit and shop tomorrow.

Coming soon: in-app checkout.

We believe Instagram is integral to how our audience is inspired to shop. We're a seeing strong lift in sales conversions whenever we use shopping on Instagram, since tapping to learn about our products has become the norm.

- Elisa Kosonen, Senior Manager, Social Media at Aritzia

Put your store within a finger's reach.

130 millionInstagram accounts tap on a shopping post to learn more about products every month ³.

500 millionaccounts visit Instagram Stories daily ⁴.

36%of Instagrammers surveyed in the US say they love to shop and consider it a hobby ⁵.

Find deeper insights on the shopping journey of today's connected consumer in this study from Facebook IQ.

Need ideas on how to get started?

Since we started to use the feature, our sales from Instagram have increased by 42% and traffic to our website from Instagram is up 98%.

- Laura Dover, Global Digital Communication Manager at Barbour

Ready to sell your products on Instagram? Get started with step-by-step instructions and find answers to frequently asked questions.

Once you've set up your account, try these best practices to keep people engaged.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Shopping on Instagram: Sell Products Online

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From the moment of discovery to making a purchase, every part of the mobile shopping experience should feel seamless. Instagram makes it easy for online shoppers to fall in love with your products and quickly make them their own. of shopping enthusiasts turn to Instagram for product discovery 1.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
LONDON, United Kingdom - From Rei Kawakubo's daring and imaginative collections to the company's unconventional retail strategies, epitomised by its Guerilla Stores and Dover Street Market emporiums, Comme des Garçons has long been a pioneering force in fashion, animated by a kachikan, or sense of values, rooted in creativity and the importance of continually giving birth to things that are genuinely new and different.

Yet curiously, the company, which generates about $220 million in annual revenue, has been something of a laggard when it comes to embracing the creative potential of the Internet. The brand operates a series of elegant but technically unsophisticated websites (only the Dover Street Market site offers e-commerce). And though Comme des Garçons' loyal fans have taken matters into their own hands, launching popular accounts to celebrate the brand and its universe on social platforms like Tumblr and Facebook, the company has been completely inactive on social media. Until now.

This Friday, to coincide with its upcoming tenth anniversary, Dover Street Market is set to launch its first social media account on Instagram. So why now?

"We're a very low-tech, lo-fi company and things have always happened organically. We don't have a five year plan. It just happened as part of the ten year anniversary," said Adrian Joffe, partner of Rei Kawakubo and president of the Paris-based Comme des Garçons International, in an exclusive interview.

The new Dover Street Market Instagram account (which will be managed by Laura Bradley, editor of AnOther Magazine's website) will publish "quite abstract messaging. We think we can use Instagram to express our values," continued Joffe. "We want to use Instagram as a magazine, rather than a constant daily diary of what products are in the stores. There will be chapters and stories. We want to communicate with a big wide audience, an audience we've never reached before, a global audience."

But Dover Street Market's first foray into social media is no harbinger of a more digitally active Comme des Garçons. The core brand, overseen by Rei Kawakubo, has no plans to launch social media accounts in the foreseeable future. "It's the same reason why there is no Comme des Garçons website - it's just images and information. She has enough to do. She makes the clothes. Dover Street is a different animal. It comes from the same mother, the same birth, but it's a different thing - maybe getting more different," said Joffe.

"The basic values will never be different from Comme des Garçons," he continued. "But as [Dover Street Market] grows, who knows where the future takes us? Maybe suddenly it will get so big and different, it'll become actually separated. Everything is always changing every day. The whole title of the anniversary is 'The Next 10 Years.' We're not looking back."

Indeed, true to its unconventional DNA, Dover Street Market's ten year anniversary celebration will be the exact opposite of a traditional retrospective. "We wanted to have a whole month-long celebration with lots of events happening, changing the store completely. And part of that was a kind of starting point," said Joffe. "It's all about the future. We're just testing how that future is."

The celebrations will kick off at the retailer's original, six-storey London store, which will reopen on September 1st, after three days of closure and re-construction, with a renovated basement and second floor, as well as an enlarged top-floor space for the Rose Bakery, a new first-floor event space (which will be occupied by Louis Vuitton for the entire Autumn/Winter 2014 season) and an expanded jewellery section and wallet display on the ground floor. Scattered throughout the building will be temporary market stalls - collectively dubbed "Market Street Dover" - hawking a wide range of exclusive products designed by Sacai, Simone Rocha, Gary Card, Giambattista Valli, , Casey Casey, Undercover, Craig Green, Nike and Palace Skateboards, among others. Many of the products that will debut as part of the celebration will be special one-offs, though "some things will be born at this time and carry on and grow up," said Joffe.

As the month continues, each floor of the store will host events staged by a rotating cast of designers, who, on four special "open days" during September, will meet with customers and "generally hold court." To mark the anniversary, the luxury retailer will also offer ten affordably-priced products - "things anyone can buy, souvenirs, tchotchkes" - designed in collaboration with Eastpak, Vans, Fred Perry, , New Era and others.

But what of the future?

When Dover Street Market first opened ten years ago on what was then a quiet stretch of London's Mayfair, the off-piste location and concept - part brand flagship, part luxury bazaar - were strikingly new and singular. But ten years later, Dover Street Market has expanded into China, Japan and the US; the retailer's approach has been studied and copied by competitors; and a slew of fashion brands from Acne to APC have opened on the very same stretch of Dover Street that gave the store its name.

"Rei keeps saying, 'What's the new Dover Street Market, what's going to happen tomorrow?'" said Joffe. "People catch up and the more you do, the harder it is to do new things because experience weighs you down. We have no idea what the future of Dover Street Market is... It's not going to be bigger but the same thing. We keep trying to find the new way - what is the next new idea about retail?"

"We try to offer an experience that is exciting, stimulating, fun and entertaining - an experience so people want to come here and share. It has to be more than [just a place to buy things]," he added. "I think we've given people that and we hope to give more of that in the future."

Editor's Note: This article was revised on 14 August, 2014. An earlier version of this article misstated that Rei Kawakubo had collaborated directly with Eastpak, Vans, Fred Perry, Sunspel, New Era and others to design products to mark the tenth anniversary of Dover Street Market. She did not. The collaborations were developed by Dover Street Market.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BoF Exclusive | Dover Street Market to Dip Toes in Social Media, Open New Chapter

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
BoF can reveal that Dover Street Market is set to launch an account on Instagram, charting a different course to parent company Comme des Garçons and kicking-off a tenth anniversary celebration that will see the store transformed from top to bottom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Instagram is making it a lot simpler for people to buy things they come across in their feed.

Beginning Tuesday, when people decide to buy a product from a brand or retailer on Instagram, they'll be able to pay for that product inside the app instead of leaving Instagram to finish the transaction on a retailer's website. Instagram will keep a small cut of the sale for facilitating the purchase, and it's partnering with PayPal to process the payments.

The idea is simple: The fewer steps it takes to complete a purchase, the more likely people will complete the process.

"I love shopping, and it sucks on mobile," Ashley Yuki, the Instagram product exec who is in charge of shopping, said in an interview with Recode. Between jumping from apps like Instagram to a retailer's website, to entering credit card and shipping info, the number of steps it takes to buy something online is just too cumbersome, she says. "I think people abandon [shopping] flows now. I know I do. You just kind of give up."

That's what Instagram hopes to solve with its new checkout feature. Users will have a credit card and shipping address stored on the app, which means purchases will require a few taps, not a few minutes.

Historically, Instagram has been content to serve as a traffic cop when it comes to shopping - it will show people products through a feature the company calls "shopping tags," but then it directs them to a retailer facilitating the transaction. Vishal Shah, Instagram's now head of product, told Recode in 2016 that it didn't want to be "in your face" about shopping.

But that thinking has evolved as shopping on Instagram has gotten bigger. Yuki says 130 million people look at product tags each month inside the app, up from just 90 million in September. Shopping simply feels like too big of an opportunity to pass up, she says, especially considering no one has really nailed mobile shopping yet. "There's just so much potential," Yuki added.

Instagram isn't just doing this out of concern for your online shopping woes. There are benefits to Instagram, too, including potential revenue.

The company will take a cut of each transaction, what it's calling a "selling fee." Instagram won't say how much it's going to take, but even a small fee could add to the company's business growth - an incentive considering parent company Facebook's revenue growth has been slowing. Even if the fees don't provide much at all, it's likely Instagram will eventually let retailers promote these shopping posts (though they can't at launch). If indeed people are more likely to buy thanks to the direct checkout feature, those ads could be lucrative.

There's also a data element. Any information collected as part of a transaction could be used to supplement Facebook's advertising business, Yuki confirmed. That probably doesn't matter now - Instagram likely already knows what products you are buying online based on its third-party data collection - but collecting that data right inside the Facebook app is even simpler and potentially more valuable in that it cuts out the middle man.

Eventually, Yuki would love Instagram to become a de facto shopping destination: a service that brings you all the brands and personalization you want, but that doesn't require you to download and navigate a bunch of different retailer apps.

"It drives me nuts that I have to download like 10 different retailer's apps and can't see them all cross-cut with each other the way I would at a mall if I was just walking around," she said. "It just takes so much time. It's not fun."

Instagram recently started putting products inside the "explore" section of the app, where users can search for new people and brands to follow. The Verge has also reported that Instagram is building a standalone shopping app, though it hasn't been launched and the company hasn't confirmed it is happening. One argument against that idea is that asking people to download a separate app just to shop might defeat the purpose.

Yuki didn't say yes to a standalone shopping app, but she didn't say no, either.

"There are a lot of steps that come before you take that kind of step," she said when asked, "especially in this world where people are already coming to Instagram in the existing product to shop."

The new checkout feature will only work with a limited group of about 20 partner retailers and brands to start, including Burberry, Michael Kors, Nike, and Warby Parker. It will roll out to people in the US over the coming weeks.

Recode Daily

Sign up for our Recode Daily newsletter to get the top tech and business news stories delivered to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Instagram will now let you buy products directly inside the app

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Instagram is making it a lot simpler for people to buy things they come across in their feed. Beginning Tuesday, when people decide to buy a product from a brand or retailer on Instagram, they'll be able to pay for that product inside the app instead of leaving Instagram to finish the transaction on a retailer's website.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we're up to by signing up here. Welcome back to our obsessive coverage of Dover Street Market, where we're taking Rei Kawakubo's multibrand store floor by floor, leaving no kooky detail unmentioned.

Over the weekend, Murray Hill transformed into Manhattan's new destination for the fashion obsessed, as Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons unveiled Dover Street Market New York. Each of the seven floors has a unique identity, while synchronously remaining within the store's theme of "beautiful chaos."

The market is a total must-see and truly one of a kind. Though there's so much to discuss-and we'll get there-here's a round-up of the ten most important things to know about Dover Street Market in the meantime.

1. First things first: Every six months to a year, the market will close up shop for a few days in order to create "The New Beginning." Expect a complete transformation every time this happens.

2. The Louis Vuitton shop will rotate womenswear and menswear every six weeks. The market opened with a menswear collection that includes extraordinary pieces from the collaboration with artist Terence Koh.

3. While the Saint Laurent collection may not be exclusive to DSM, the display in which it sits was designed by Hedi Slimane.

4. The Comme des Garçons spring 2014 runway collection is already available for purchase on the sixth floor-it won't be hitting Barneys for another two months.

5. There is clothing in the Prada shop on seven that was designed specifically for the market. These pieces are distinguished by special tags that read 'Prada at Dover Street Market.' Along with these exclusive pieces, shoppers will also find pieces from Prada's resort collection.

6. The market is curated in a way that is meant to encourage androgynous dressing. Shoppers should feel no large divide between menswear and womenswear, and instead focus on the beauty of every piece. It's a safe haven for ladies who love to wear oversized trousers and tuxedo jackets, as well as men who enjoy wearing skirts and dresses. That 'wear what you want no matter your gender' attitude is reflected in the way the store is laid out, with no clear separation of womenswear and menswear.

Designer Paula Gerbase's 1205 collection

7. The former point is illustrated on the fourth floor, aka the Energy Showroom. Here is where one will find 1205, the collection by British designer Paula Gerbase. The up-and-comer designed a line of clothing that is meant to be completely androgynous. She uses muted colors like navy, white, and grey.

8. Michal Costiff's World Archive display is a must see. Situated on the same floor as Alaïa, there are wooden nose plugs from Papua New Guinea, kimonos, beaded hats, sculptures, and other one-of-a-kind exotic pieces found throughout the world.

9. Gaia Repossi designed a collection of jewelry specifically for the market, which can be found on the first floor where all of the jewelry is showcased.

10. And lastly, there are bathrooms with automatic toilets on three, six, and in the basement. By automatic, we mean that the toilet lids open and close for you, as well as flush.
· Mindblowing Street Style at the Dover Street Market Opening [Racked NY]
· PHOTOS: Inside Dover Street Market, Which Opens Tomorrow! [Racked NY]
· All Dover Street Market Coverage [Racked NY]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The 10 Most Important Things to Know About Dover Street Market

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we're up to by signing up here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Japanese fashion brand Comme des Garçons has relocated the London branch of its Dover Street Market store to a heritage-listed building on the city's Haymarket (+ slideshow).

The new Dover Street Market store is located at 18-22 Haymarket inside a Grade II-listed building erected by Burberry founder Thomas Burberry in 1912.

Similarly to its original location on Dover Street, the overall interior has been conceived by Comme des Garçons' Rei Kawakubo. However, all the represented brands with dedicated spaces were given the freedom to design them as they saw fit.

Kawakubo was keen to "embrace and enhance" the building's original features, and as a result the exterior, original ceilings, windows, and central staircase remain untouched.

"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," she said.

Comme des Garcons Aoyama installation by Studio Toogood

Clothing, accessory and shoe brands are split over each of the store's five levels, as well as a bakery and numerous installations.

Permanent spaces on the ground floor include Comme des Garçons' Homme Plus label, which was constructed from reclaimed shipping containers. A "Birds Nest Perfume Tower" is used to display all fragrances from Comme des Garçons Parfums.

An area for Jewellery brand Repossi was designed by Rem Koolhaas' OMA and AMO teams. Pieces by British designer Simone Rocha, who has created a collection to celebrate the store's opening, are displayed inside a clear Perspex room.

On the first floor, garments and accessories by J W Anderson hang from a children's playground, which was inspired by a similar one in the designer's home town in Northern Ireland.

Leather goods brand Delvaux's space was hand painted by an artist, while Dior based its area on the set of its haute couture Spring Summer 2016 show.

An installation by artist Pirosmani is also located on the first floor in the form of a wraparound artwork.

Brands including Craig Green and Gosha Rubchinskiy have permanent spaces in the store's basement, alongside NikeLab and Palace Skateboards.

The original Dover Street Market opened in September 2004 in London's Mayfair. Its new Haymarket location is to open its doors to the public on 19 March 2016, after the original store closed just over a week before.

"The biggest thing is that it is three times the size," vice president Dickon Bowden told online publication Womens Wear Daily. "We will be familiar, yet new and different at the same time."

"Each floor has its own personality and its own sort of feeling. The intention is to take and transpose all that feeling and personalities across to the new store - plus inject it with some newness," he continued.

There are now three Dover Street Markets; one in London, a second in Tokyo and an outpost New York that opened in 2013.

Designer Faye Toogood previously designed an installation comprising stacked plaster blocks, raw concrete walls and copper pipes to display shoes inside the Dover Street store.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dover Street Market opens new store on London's Haymarket

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Japanese fashion brand Comme des Garçons has relocated the London branch of its Dover Street Market store to a heritage-listed building on the city's Haymarket (+ slideshow). The new Dover Street Market store is located at 18-22 Haymarket inside a Grade II-listed building erected by Burberry founder Thomas Burberry in 1912.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Home sweet home: Dover Street Market opens arresting new Haymarket hub

Taking on a 31,000 sq ft Grade II listed building located south of Piccadilly - in an area not known for its fashion footfall - might seem a retail blunder for some. Yet for Adrian Joffe, president of Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market, the opportunity shone like a beacon.

'People's expectations rise and you have to rise with them. The question is how do we make DSM even more surprising and create something that you don't expect?' The former Burberry HQ (vacated in 2007) offered a five level space (an increase of 20,000 sq ft) with expansive street level windows and plenty of heritage charm: plaster architraves, wood panelling, leaded windows and a central octagonal staircase. Plus, with rents spiraling in the original Dover Street Market location that opened almost 12 years ago, a move was on the cards. The new building is part of the Crown Estate; then owner Alan Sugar introduced Joffe to the property. While DSM is the first big retailer to make a home on Haymarket, surrounding buildings are being redeveloped with the mission of creating a new shopping hub in central London.

'We couldn't touch the walls, the ceilings or the exterior,' explains Joffe of the challenges. 'Only the floors could be changed as they were not original.' The DSM team, collaborating with a cross section of artists, lighting architects and builders, have transformed the property into a inspiring labyrinthine market housing a whole array of familiar and new brands including Comme des Garçons, JW Anderson and Loewe, The Row, Paul Smith, Dior, Alaia, Gucci, Sacai, Gaia Repossi, Supreme and Céline.

'The kindred spirit is independence, freedom and something special to say. It's not the majority. It's not the common denominator. We are aiming for something special and there is a mutual respect,' Joffe says of the brand family.

Enter the ground floor and one is immediately struck by the giant curving street style lights, designed by Daniel Young and Christian Giroux, that sprout up the floor like giant silver triffids. Incandescent light is cast over the displays - Perspex and metal cabinets for jewellery, giant pile-ups of Mansur Gavriel box bags, Simone Rocha's see-through room and an iconic Comme des Garçons wooden hut.

The thrill is in the juxtaposition of the brands and the micro/macro environments. Each floor has a different character and tempo. The basement is a hive of street cool with industrial fittings while the second floor showcases fashion's leading creatives. Chitose Abe, creative director at Sacai, chose to display her collection in deconstructed Victorian wardrobes that are sawn off at angles, designed by Gelchop. Gucci is set against a buttoned citrine velvet wall. Comme Des Garçons Ready-To-Wear, with its voluminous proportions, is set off against a sweeping elliptical gold wall by Pirosmani; while Vetements is housed in a supersized changing room set complete with rails and canvas drapes.

'Maybe it's intimidating but it really works. The changing room links to clothing and it links to retail - it is immediate. You like it, you try it on,' says Demna Gvasalia, co founder and creative director of Vetements. On the top floor, the Rose Bakery offers organic fair, tea and cake on an eclectic mish-mash of recycled tables and chairs. Composer Calx Vive has created a free-style sonic environment with slow jams and pendulum bells reverberating through the space.

True to form, nothing is conventional. The street level windows are filled with giant ivory coloured spheres. The actual entrance is on Orange Street. One of the provisos from Westminster council was that it had to look like a retail store. 'That's the last thing we wanted so Rei came up with these giant spheres which block the window but you can still see that it is a shop. Very powerful,' says Joffe.

The visual impact is sure to raise eyebrows and lure people in. Joffe and manager Dickon Bowden have set their sights on a 50 per cent increase in turnover this year. The original London store boasted increases of 15 per cent last year with a turnover of £23 million. 'It's going to be interesting,' says Joffe, 'We expect the luxury person to still come and we expect new clients and more tourists who will be thinking, what are those giant balls in the window?'§

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Home sweet home: Dover Street Market opens arresting new Haymarket hub

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Taking on a 31,000 sq ft Grade II listed building located south of Piccadilly - in an area not known for its fashion footfall - might seem a retail blunder for some. Yet for Adrian Joffe, president of Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market, the oppo...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Fast-forward 13 years and you can now find DSM stores in Tokyo, New York, China and from next year Los Angeles, while revenues for the London store stood at £23 million in 2016. But what is it exactly that makes DSM so special? Sure, it closes twice a year for a three-day refit to regularly swap out collections, meaning every six months your experience of the store is completely different. Yet ask anyone with even a mild interest in fashion and they'll say the same thing: DSM is about more than simply shopping. Rather than renting out the spaces, the store takes a commission, so different areas don't become isolated islands fighting for customer's attention across 31,000 square feet. Each designer is encouraged to decorate their own area within the store, while notorious art duo Jake and Dinos Chapman, graphic artist Jamie Reid and set designer Gary Card have contributed to display windows.

As Dreamland Syndicate, a Polish label currently on rotation in store, puts it: 'Dover Street is kind of a bridge between high and low brow art, and mixing the two is a fairly new phenomenon in the fashion industry.'

The result is a rare, almost unheard-of equality, where fairly new skate labels such as Palace are given as much importance as near 100-year-old brands like Gucci. Can't afford Comme des Garçons? Doesn't matter; swerve the high-end for a £30 scarf and walk out feeling like you've truly experienced a 'concept store' and, well, actually enjoyed it.
Louise Donovan is a freelance journalist who's written for Vice, i-D and ShortList magazine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
London's Dover Street Market is the fashion spot mixing luxury with the unknown

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fast-forward 13 years and you can now find DSM stores in Tokyo, New York, China and from next year Los Angeles, while revenues for the London store stood at £23 million in 2016. But what is it exactly that makes DSM so special?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The nine decades of Yayoi Kusama's life have taken her from rural Japan to the New York art scene to contemporary Tokyo, in a career in which she has continuously innovated and re-invented her style. Well-known for her repeating dot patterns, her art encompasses an astonishing variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, film, performance and immersive installation. It ranges from works on paper featuring intense semi-abstract imagery, to soft sculpture known as 'Accumulations', to her 'Infinity Net' paintings, made up of carefully repeated arcs of paint built up into large patterns. Since 1977 Kusama has lived voluntarily in a psychiatric institution, and much of her work has been marked with obsessiveness and a desire to escape from psychological trauma. In an attempt to share her experiences, she creates installations that immerse the viewer in her obsessive vision of endless dots and nets or infinitely mirrored space.

At the centre of the art world in the 1960s, she came into contact with artists including Donald Judd, Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell and Claes Oldenburg, influencing many along the way. She has traded on her identity as an 'outsider' in many contexts - as a female artist in a male-dominated society, as a Japanese person in the Western art world, and as a victim of her own neurotic and obsessional symptoms. After achieving fame and notoriety with groundbreaking art happenings and events, she returned to her country of birth and is now Japan's most prominent contemporary artist.

This is a varied, spectacular exhibition of a truly unique artist. There has never been an exhibition of this size of her work in the UK and this is an unmissable opportunity for both Kusama fans and those new to her work.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Tate Modern 9 February - 5 June 2012

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Born in Nagano Prefecture.
Avant-garde sculptor, painter and novelist.

Started to paint using polka dots and nets as motifs at around age ten ,and created fantastic paintings in watercolors, pastels and oils.

Went to the United States in 1957. Showed large paintings, soft sculptures, and environmental sculptures using mirrors and electric lights. In the latter 1960s, staged many happenings such as body painting festivals, fashion shows and anti-war demonstrations. Launched media-related activities such as film production and newspaper publication. In 1968, the film "Kusama's Self-Obliteration"which Kusama produced and starred in won a prize at the Fourth International Experimental Film Competition in Belgium and the Second Maryland Film Festival and the second prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Held exhibitions and staged happenings also in various countries in Europe.

Returned to Japan in 1973. While continuing to produce and show art works, Kusama issued a number of novels and anthologies. In 1983, the novel "The Hustlers Grotto of Christopher Street" won the Tenth Literary Award for New Writers from the monthly magazine Yasei Jidai.

In 1986, held solo exhibitions at the Musee Municipal, Dole and the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Calais, France, in 1989, solo exhibitions at the Center for International Contemporary Arts, New York and the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England. In 1993, participated in the 45th Venice Biennale.

Began to create open-air sculptures in 1994. Produced open-air pieces for the Fukuoka Kenko Center, the Fukuoka Municipal Museum of Art, the Bunka-mura on Benesse Island of Naoshima, Kirishima Open-Air Museum and Matsumoto City Museum of Art, , in front of Matsudai Station, Niigata,TGV's Lille-Europe Station in France, Beverly Gardens Park, Beverly hills, Pyeonghwa Park,
Anyang and a mural for the hallway at subway station in Lisbon.

Began to show works mainly at galleries in New York in 1996. A solo show held in New York in the same year won the Best Gallery Show in 1995/96 and the Best Gallery Show in 1996/97 from the International Association of Art Critics in 1996.

From1998 to 1999, a major retrospective of Kusama's works which opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art traveled to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Walker Art Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.

In 2000, Kusama won The Education Minister's Art Encouragement Prize and Foreign-Minister's Commendations. Her solo exhibition that started at Le Consortium in France in the same year traveled to Maison de la culture du Japon, Paris, KUNSTHALLEN BRANDTS ÆDEFABRIK, Denmark, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, KUNSTHALLE Wien, Art Sonje Center, Seoul.

Received the Asahi Prize in 2001, the Medal with Dark Navy Blue Ribbon in 2002, the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Officier), and the Nagano Governor Prize (for the contribution in encouragement of art and culture) in 2003

In 2004, Her solo exhibition "KUSAMATRIX" started at Mori Museum in Tokyo. This exhibition drew visitors totaling 520,000 people. In the same year, another solo exhibition started at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo In 2005, it traveled to The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto,
Matsumoto City Museum of Art.

Received the 2006 National Lifetime Achievement Awards, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Losette and The Praemium Imperiale -Painting- in 2006.

In 2008, Documentary film : "Yayoi Kusama, I adore myself" released in Japan and also screened at international film festival and museum. Exhibition tour started at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney in Australia in 2009, City Gallery Wellington in New Zealand. Conferred the honorary citizen of Matsumoto city.

Solo exhibition at Gagosian Gallery NY and LA, Victora Miro Gallery in London and Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea in Milan. Honored as Person of Cultural Merits in Japan 2009.

In 2010, solo exhibition and permanent outdoor sculpture at Towada Art Center in Japan.?Participation to Sydney Biennale and Aichi Triennale. Solo exhibition at Victoria Miro Gallery in London, fiac in Paris.

2011, solo exhibition at Gagosian gallery (Roma), Victoria Miro gallery (London). Europe and North America retrospective tour started at Museo
Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid traveling to Centre Pompidou

(Paris), TATE MODERN (London) and Whitney Museum (New York). Solo exhibition at Watari Art Museum (Tokyo). In September, participate in the 2011 Chengdu Biennale (China). Programmed solo exhibition at Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane) in November.

2012, "Eternity of Eternal Eternity", recent works solo national traveling show started at National Museum of Art, Osaka traveled to The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Matsumoto City Museum of Art, Nagano, Niigata City Art Museum. In the next year, it travel to Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Oita Art Museum and Museum of Art, Koch. Solo exhibition at Victoria Miro gallery (London). Shinjuku Honorary Citizen Award. The American Academy Of Arts and Letters Foreign Honorary Membership. Collaborated with Louis Vuitton creative director Marc Jacobs on collaborative collection "LOUIS VUITTON × YAYOI KUSAMA Collection".

2013, "Yayoi Kusama. Obsesión infinita [Infinite Obsession]", South America retrospective tour started at Malba - Fundacacion Constantini. It will travel to Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Centro Cultutal Banco do Brasil, Brasília, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo and Mexico City. "KUSAMA YAYOI, A Dream I Dreamed", recent works exhibition tour started at Daegu Art Museum, Korea. It will travel to Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, Seoul Arts Centre, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Born in Nagano Prefecture. Avant-garde sculptor, painter and novelist. Started to paint using polka dots and nets as motifs at around age ten ,and created fantastic paintings in watercolors, pastels and oils. Went to the United States in 1957. Showed large paintings, soft sculptures, and environmental sculptures using mirrors and electric lights.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Over the course of her distinguished career, Yayoi Kusama has developed a practice, which, though it shares affiliations with Surrealism, Minimalism, Pop art, Eccentric Abstraction, the Zero and Nul movements, resists any singular classification. Born in Matsumoto City, Japan in 1929, she studied painting in Kyoto before moving to New York in the late 1950s, and by the mid-1960s had become well known in the avant-garde world for her provocative happenings and exhibitions. Since this time, Kusama's extraordinary artistic endeavours have spanned painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, performance, film, printmaking, installation and environmental art as well as literature, fashion (most notably in her 2012 collaboration with Louis Vuitton) and product design.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Over the course of her distinguished career, Yayoi Kusama has developed a practice, which, though it shares affiliations with Surrealism, Minimalism, Pop art, Eccentric Abstraction, the Zero and Nul movements,...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As part of their ongoing collaboration which has already included a luxurious and impressive retail space, Louis Vuitton and artist Yayoi Kusama present a limited edition book for Dover Street Market Ginza as well. Presented as a full-color coffee table edition, the publication is full of images and works drawn from the last 50 years of her career. With her Louis Vuitton partnership, Kusama has joined the ranks of famed artists in the past who have teamed up with the French fashion house which includes Sol LeWitt, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Louis Vuitton Limited Edition Yayoi Kusama Book for Dover Street Market Ginza

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As part of their ongoing collaboration which has already included a luxurious and impressive retail space, Louis Vuitton and artist Yayoi Kusama present a limited edition book for Dover Street Market Ginza as well. Presented as a full-color coffee table edition, the publication is full of images and works drawn from the last 50 years of her career.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Marc Jacobs initiated the high profile collaboration project between Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama, with the capsule collection including ready-to-wear and leather goods. It has been announced that the Dover Street Market Ginza and Isetan Shinjuku stores in Japan will be hosting a pop-up store for a limited time. Isetan Shinjuku will commence the pop-up store slightly earlier than Dover Street Market Ginza on Wednesday, July 18 and will finish on Tuesday, July 31. On the other hand, the latter pop-up store will open from Friday, July 20 until Thursday, August 23. Be sure to drop by these shops when you are in Tokyo next month.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama Pop-up Store at Dover Street Market Ginza

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Marc Jacobs initiated the high profile collaboration project between Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama, with the capsule collection including ready-to-wear and leather goods. It has been announced that the Dover Street Market Ginza and Isetan Shinjuku stores in Japan will be hosting a pop-up store for a limited time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This Post features mostly Yayoi Kusama's 1980s works. By this time she has moved back to Tokyo. She left New York in 1973. Her mental health had declined after the death of her closest friend, Joseph Cornell, the American Surrealist artist, in 1972. On her return to Japan, she was considered to have been 'westernised', so little interest was shown in her work initially. She had to work on a small scale again as she did in the 1950s because she did not have access to a large studio. By the 1980s though she is beginning to show in Tokyo galleries which prompts her to work on a large scale again.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yayoi Kusama - In Infinity Retrospective exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art 2015 Post 2

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This Post features mostly Yayoi Kusama's 1980s works. By this time she has moved back to Tokyo. She left New York in 1973. Her mental health had declined after the death of her closest friend, Joseph Cornell, the American Surrealist artist, in 1972.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you can make track suits and acid-washed denim look cool, you know you have the magic touch. Will Welch and Jim Moore take a look at Alexandre Mattiussi's spring 2016 collection for AMI, which pays homage to French tailoring with a slight nod to normcore and American streetwear

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Streetwear - Latest Styles, Trends, Ideas How To's and Tips

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you can make track suits and acid-washed denim look cool, you know you have the magic touch. Will Welch and Jim Moore take a look at Alexandre Mattiussi's spring 2016 collection for AMI, which pays homage to French tailoring with a slight nod to normcore and American streetwear

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Almost six years ago, I wrote a Complex list entitled "The 50 Greatest Streetwear Brands of All Time." My curation, exclusion, and ranking of streetwear brands generated critique and commentary (that's the point, after all). The hardest part of my streetwear list, though, wasn't the selection, and it certainly wasn't the writing. It was the prompt: how do we define "streetwear?"

I started with this:

"Every line on this list, with a few exceptions, has built their brand off T-shirts, not catering specifically to just an urban or skate audience, and initializing their distribution through selective channels. Sales distro and image are what ultimately constitute a brand as streetwear, not the art or design."

In a way, I still stand by that definition. Design-wise, streetwear boils down to baseball caps, sneakers, hoodies, and most of all, tees. "Streetwear to me is young T-shirt brands," Diamond Supply Co founder Nick Tershay tells me.

According to Tommy Hilfiger, it's sportswear and military. "The aesthetic has to be a bit sporty, a bit athletic," he says. It's skate and hip-hop, but it's not exclusively any one of these things.

"I felt like certain brands got it, but they kind of gravitated towards skaters too much," ASAP Rocky tells me. "Or certain brands got it, but they gravitated toward graffiti and art shit too much."

Therefore, virtually any fashion brand can identify as streetwear (Alex James of Pleasures remarks, "Every brand is streetwear, right?"). But streetwear's independent attitude is its distinguishing asterisk. Alyasha Owerka-Moore, a pioneer who's served as designer for Phat Farm, Alphanumeric, and Fiberops, considers streetwear "any brand that is spawned independently without the backing of factor."

Jeff Staple on streetwear's roots: "I like to call it independently created stuff. It wasn't streetwear yet. It was just people hustling, doing their own thing without any business or financial gain. Just expression."

When I ask designer Fear of God's Jerry Lorenzo if he considers his work as streetwear, he replies, "100%. It's street in the sense that I'm self-taught. And, in the sense we don't belong to a fashion house or have access to any resources outside of our own. No investors, no partners, etc. The product is pure as we're not on the fashion calendar and our product is 100% a reflection of our perspective and capabilities. The collection comes out when it's ready." When pressed to define "streetwear," he says, "I guess anything would be considered street that comes outside of the traditional fashion system... and I still don't really know what exactly 'that system' is."

My Complex list yielded more questions than answers. Here was my attempt at explaining streetwear, but what was everyone else's? I started filming notable designers and personalities around the world to get their take. One hundred fifty hours of interviews later, we are finally wrapping up post-production on Built to Fail-the first streetwear documentary of its kind-and have barely scratched the surface of an exposition (some of those findings are quoted here in this essay). Surprise-no surprise-no two people agreed on what streetwear looks like, who is responsible for it, and where it came from.

First, consider locale, then era. Growing up in Southern California in the '90s, my impression of streetwear entailed L.A. workwear, skate, and party brands like X-Large, Fuct, and Freshjive. But, streetwear's West Coast roots are tethered to the surf counterculture of the '70s and '80s. Most authorities point to surfboard shaper Shawn Stussy as streetwear's architect via his namesake brand. Although it's an ascription I'm not sure he is even comfortable with, Stüssy 's marriage of art, surf, and hip-hop transcended Orange County, hit New York and Japan, and the rest is fashion history.

Trace Marshall (of surf brand Brothers Marshall) also credits other surf designers of the period. "I think [surfboard shaper and artist] Peter Schroff and what was going on at Echo Beach at that time was a heavy influence obviously," he says. "But going back, if you look at old Thrasher Magazines and stuff, it's like Jim Ganzer with Jimmy'Z. I think Jimmy'Z was before Stüssy as far as influencer of street; but then it kind of stems to [skateboarder] Jay Adams dressing up as cholo. Skateboarding in the '70s was this mainstream thing, and here comes Jay Adams dressed like a cholo pre-Suicidal (Tendencies)."

My counterparts on the East Coast interpret streetwear's history differently. "I like to think that streetwear was born in New York," says Jeff. Connecting the dots to hip-hop's home, Staple sees streetwear and its surrounding musical influences as inextricable. "You can never take away the fact that we birthed the culture," he says. "I feel like we have an invitation to the conversation no matter how wack we are doing at either." He points to brands that were sold at boutiques like Union NY and Triple Five Soul, including PNB, Subware, and Project Dragon, as the flag-bearers.

If you live in Japan, streetwear's story takes form with Tokyo icons like Hiroshi Fujiwara and Nigo. Miami? Don Busweiler's Pervert and Animal Farm. If you're from London, we have to mention Bond International and Michael Kopelman.

Streetwear's origins tailor around geography; but its definition is also highly predicated on time periods. Although the word itself can be traced to '80s skate clothing Vision Streetwear, as an industry and market device, it didn't come into heavy play until the 2000s. "I think it finally became a terminology in 2002 or something like that," says Jeff.

Mega, co-founder of Black Scale, affirms this. "I mean, going back 2002 to 2005 when all this was starting and formulating...You know, that was the start of what streetwear is today," he says.

When I ask ASAP Rocky when streetwear exploded, he points to the turn of this decade. "I would say 2011," he says. "Around the time we were, you know, coming up, and we had SSUR and Black Scale. I mean, we would even wear Mishka, we would wear fucking [The] Hundreds, we would wear fucking Undefeated, all that shit. I mean, Bounty Hunter, you know, all that shit."

Today, the internet and social media are equalizing these viewpoints. Streetwear's modern diagnosis is still contingent on time and place, but that "time" is whatever is happening right now and that "place" is blogs. Whereas artists and renegades forged streetwear in the shadows of the underground, in 2017, the finicky media spotlight is determining what-and more critically, who-is streetwear. Hypebeast, Complex, and High Snobiety were the first gate of online streetwear media, attentive to the nuances and culture. Now we have Vogue, Business of Fashion, and GQ editorializing fashion's most exciting trend.

Streetwear's current iteration as high-fashion is nothing new. Shawn Stussy's Chanel parody with the locking "S"s influenced decades of flirtation between high and low fashion. When Supreme bit Louis Vuitton's monogram at the turn of the millennium, who knew that lawsuit would turn into an official collaboration 17 years later? "Since Hedi Slimane did Dior Homme, the lines of high fashion and street fashion have blurred," Edison Chen, founder of Hong Kong-based brand CLOT, says.

The new collaboration of streetwear and fashion is powered by profits. "What streetwear has become is what bothers me," Erik Brunetti of Fuct tells me. "Big business corporations have infiltrated streetwear and are currently in the process of rewriting its history to fit their financial narrative. I don't fit in that narrative simply because I'm aware of what they are doing. By keeping me, Erik Brunetti, out of the picture, it makes it safe for unqualified individuals to enter the industry and become overnight streetwear sensations. Being a friend of a famous rapper seems to qualify. It's like when a blockbuster movie makes a toy to accompany the release to increase the sales. The movie company does not care about content, only money. Same thing is currently taking place with streetwear. The rapper or reality star needs to be a streetwear designer and own a label to accompany his album. Hype sites and related publications gladly jump on board. Real talent and designs go unnoticed. It's all become disposable fashion."

The media has expanded the genre to include everything from pop-up rap merch to athleisure. Kanye West's The Life of Pablo concert apparel was some of the most popular streetwear of 2016, featuring Gildan blank T-shirts emblazoned with Cali DeWitt's iron-on letter artwork. That same summer, Forever 21 capitalized on the fad by introducing a knock-off range of tees, down to the typography. Yet, outside the commercial focal point, streetwear's raw, independent fringe still thrives. Alex of Pleasures sees a revolution coming: "It's going back into the hands of people with a voice, pushing boundaries and using graphics as a medium to express stances on social and political issues."

While a new class of internet-native upstarts rise, past pioneers flourish against the mainstream. Bobby Ruiz founded Tribal Streetwear in 1989. "The only older brand is Stüssy," he says. Although editors and fashion week influencers might overlook Tribal's imprint on streetwear, 27 years later, Bobby is successfully operating stores in San Diego, Mexico, and Harajuku, Japan. Tribal also holds 42 stores in the Philippines (not a typo). "There's brands out there that are obviously maybe more fashion brands that are calling themselves streetwear," he adds. "They ain't streetwear. My definition of streetwear is that what we learned, we learned on the street. We learned how to iron our clothes by being on the street. We learned how to cuff our pants. We learned how to rip your shirt. We learned how to dress based on our experience on the street, you know what I mean? It wasn't social media, man."

If you look up "culture," the definition on the Merriam-Webster dictionary reads, "A social domain that emphasizes the practices, discourses and material expressions, which, over time, express the continuities and discontinuities of social meaning of a life held in common. "

Alyasha supports this. "I felt like back in the day there was a cultural stimulus, that there were a lot of people talking about what's happening politically or musically," he told me.

Kyle Ng of Brain Dead also underscores culture in defining streetwear. "I look at it like a band, right," he says. "Like, when I buy band T-shirts or when I was a kid buying skateboarding clothes, it wasn't really about clothes. I wasn't really interested in clothes. I was interested in representing a story or a narrative or a lifestyle."

"Streetwear is constantly redefining itself. So, it is difficult to define it as one thing," Erik adds. Subjective experiences make it impossible to nail down a comprehensive streetwear definition.

In regards to his brand Off-White, high fashion/streetwear forerunner Virgil Abloh declares, "100% yes I consider my work 'streetwear' or any categorization that allows anyone to grasp my point of view and where it comes from." It's these personal opinions and narratives- the history -that make streetwear a "life held in common." Virgil reinforces this. "'Streetwear' is an art movement, it's a way of making things," he tells me. "It's a rationale birthed by previous art movements and pop-culture life cycles."

There have been countless brands that open up on Fairfax or walk the runway under the "streetwear" tag, but the ones who treat it as fabric or lack historical knowledge, dim as the business grows. It's not hard to print T-shirts, and with a little bit of momentum, there's fast growth. But, lasting streetwear brands play by the rules. Even if they break them, they know them first.

Streetwear is about culture. It's not about clothing. It's about stories like these-stories like ours. "It's a lifestyle," Edison maintains. "It's not a clothing piece. It's how we feel. It's how we live. It's what we listen to. It's what we eat. It's how we spend our money." In other words, in the concert tour of life, streetwear is the merch.
Check out Bobby Hundreds and other insiders discussing the future of streetwear in the latest episode of our 16-part series, Complex Conversations.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
"It's Not About Clothes": Bobby Hundreds Explains Why Streetwear Is a Culture, Not Just Product

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bobby Hundreds asks insiders, like Virgil Abloh, Jeff Staple, and Erik Brunetti, how they define streetwear.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An anonymous white factory building on a country lane in rural Japan seems a world away from the glamorous fashion houses of Europe.

Yet while the modest home of Japanese company Daiichi Orimono is indeed thousands of miles from France and Italy, representatives from the likes of Louis Vuitton and Gucci are regular and enthusiastic visitors.

This is because inside the facility 100 textile looms drum noisily, weaving unique - and much in demand - synthetic fabrics that look and feel like cotton and linen.

Polyester and nylon may have a bad historic reputation for producing cheap and uncomfortable clothes, but such is the quality of Daiichi Orimono's textiles that they are now extensively used by many of the world's most expensive fashion brands.

From the coats of Italy's Moncler, to the sleek jackets of Prada and Celine, much of the fabric is made in Daiichi Orimono's factory in Fukui prefecture, on the northern coast of Japan's main island, Honshu.

But how did a small 70-year-old Japanese company that started out making sails reinvent itself as a key supplier to many of the world's most coveted luxury fashion brands? And how did it become a business with annual sales of 23bn yen ($210m; £148m) despite still only employing 60 people?

It is a success story based on acute attention to detail, Japanese "omotenashi" or hospitality, and a rather driven and determined boss.

Daiichi Orimono's chief executive Ryuji Yoshioka took over the reigns of the company from his father 35 years ago, when it was just a humble sports fabric manufacturer.

In the early 1990s he built the then new factory in Fukui, a region of Japan famous for its synthetic fabric manufacturing, and invested heavily in first class loom machinery.

Mr Yoshioka's timing could not have been worse.

"As soon as we built the factory the [economic] bubble burst, and we lost clients [in Japan]," he says. "I had to be courageous because I had a great responsibility to feed my employees."

Mr Yoshioka knew the company would fail if it relied upon the fickle Japanese market, so there was only one thing to do - he needed to attract overseas buyers.

"Back then there was no one who could speak foreign languages in the company, and no employees who were good at international sales, and so as the head of the company I had to go by myself," he says.

"It was very stressful, but the responsibility and the sense of duty drove me forward."

He started by targeting South Korea and Italy because those countries didn't have a negative impression of synthetic materials.

At the time no other Japanese textile manufacturers were looking to sell overseas, and the industries that did export their merchandise used trading companies.

Mr Yoshioka decided that he'd cut out the middle man and try to sell direct to clients. He said this was vital so that he could properly explain about the fabrics his company could make.

So embracing omotenashi he decided to take potential clients out for dinner.

"I love delicious food, there's nothing I cannot eat, and I love to drink, and anywhere I go I wouldn't stop drinking before the client did."

Soon Daiichi Orimono started to win overseas orders, and it hasn't looked back.

Today, 70% of the company's sales are to overseas customers - 30% to Europe, 30% to Asia, and 10% to North America. Its fabric is delivered to customers on giant rolls.

But what exactly makes Daiichi Orimono's synthetic fabrics so special? There are numerous factors including the fact that its polyester and nylon is more densely woven than any others on the market.

Also vital is Japanese attention to detail and quality control, with Daiichi Orimono employees checking the yarns by hand and eye to make sure that the tensions and weaves are entirely correct.

This is the latest story in a series called Connected Commerce, which every week highlights companies around the world that are successfully exporting, and trading beyond their home market.

Mr Yoshioka says he remembers very clearly the first day that Louis Vuitton and Moncler put in bulk orders.

"It was so surprising that I visited their companies and asked - is this really the fabric you want to use?

"I remember thinking repeatedly - do they think they are talking to a CEO of a different company?"

But the two fashion houses knew exactly who they were taking to.

While Daiichi Orimono currently does all its deals face to face, Mr Yoshioka says that in the future it is inevitable that the company will move into ecommerce, and so it is revamping its website.

Loic Bizel, a fashion consultant from France who has lived in Japan for more than 20 years says that Daiichi Orimono has managed to be so successful because "they are so unique, and so specific in their material".

While Mr Yoshioka inherited Daiichi Orimono from his father, he doesn't have any children to pass the company on to.

Instead he says that his staff are like his sons and daughters.

"I have very talented employees, and I believe these employees will support and improve the company even better than I did."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The textile firm making polyester desirable

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An anonymous white factory building on a country lane in rural Japan seems a world away from the glamorous fashion houses of Europe. Yet while the modest home of Japanese company Daiichi Orimono is indeed thousands of miles from France and Italy, representatives from the likes of Louis Vuitton and Gucci are regular and enthusiastic visitors.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The official Carhartt WIP shop brings you a comprehensive collection of durable and comfortable men's and women's clothing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How To Sport The Athleisure Trend This Season

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nineties inspired sportswear is back, here are 7 ways to wear the trend.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
TAGWALK is a free fashion search engine which allows you to search for models, trends, accessories and fashion shows by keywords.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create free ad mockups across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Do we need an excuse to discuss the lingerie market? If yes, how about April 24th, the third 'National Lingerie Day'. Mmhm, you heard right.

Certainly retailers shouldn't be considering the category once yearly. Today underwear makes up a larger proportion of the US market - 4% - than it has at any point over the last four years.

That 4% might seem small, but we're talking a segment worth $12 billion to the US.

And on a global scale, lingerie is expected to hit $55.83 billion by 2024. It's a 4% worth having. We've checked out the opportunities in it.

Push-up, sports bra or bralette?

In the last few years, the increase in active lifestyles have seen consumers and retailers alike move away from the bust-emphasising bra styles so popular in the 90s. Primarily, the push-up.

It's fallen down the hit list, replaced by sports bras (the third most-stocked bra style right now) and the softer lines of the triangle bra/bralette.

The first chart shows how closely aligned new arrivals of triangle bras and push-up bras were at the start of 2016.

By late 2016 that had shifted, with triangle styles forging ahead. Push-up bras have now flatlined and are unlikely to see further change, after all there will always be a consumer who has a place for this style in her wardrobe, regardless of dominant trends.

At the start of 2016, a push-up bra was averaging $32.60. It's now declined to $29.49, coming in on average cheaper than its less technical but more popular rival, the bralette, at $32.88.

Sports bras, which have seen growth focused around summer and January spikes, have increased average price point by 5% from $44.95 to $47.37. Comfort and functionality is winning out right now.

Briefs & Padded Bras

Even though push-up styles are declining, padded bras are the most significant style of bra currently on the market, as the chart below shows.

The number of padded styles in stock has grown by 17% since this time two years ago. Meanwhile, nursing bras are up 36% and bralettes are up 123%.

Meanwhile thongs are, erm, climbing, up by 15% since 2016. That's the same pace at which briefs are growing. Both trail behind shapewear, a small but growing proportion of the underwear market, up 29% in two years.

Increase in nude colors

Another interesting development in the category is the recent increase in best selling nude shades of women's underwear. In fact, best selling nude tones were up by 101% in the last three months.

Best selling nude tones in underwear were up by 101% in the last three months. tweet

Without question, there's still a long way to go. Target define five skin tones in its nude offering, which is the same number of colorways on the most diverse lines at Nordstrom.

However, recent news that Rihanna is pairing up with TechStyle Fashion Group on a lingerie line suggests greater diversity is on way. The star's incredibly successful Fenty Beauty line has 40 shades of foundation.

Victoria's Secret is Out

There has been some shifts in retailers' underwear assortments, with ASOS having grown its own brand assortment 24% in the US in the last year and Forever 21 up 49%.

That's put pressure on these guys:

In fact, Victoria's Secret is declining emphasis on underwear categories. At VS, underwear currently represents 39% of the offering. A year ago, it accounted for 44% of the offering. Tops, bottoms and accessories are all expanding as the retailer loses market share thanks to its former emphasis on push-up styles.

Across the VS portfolio, bras and knickers are declining in price point. Bras at Victoria's Secret are priced $30.04 on average today, down 4% from a year ago, and $23.96 at Pink, down 12%. Knickers have declined 24.5% at Victoria's Secret, to $10.59, and are down 14.2% at Pink, to $9.93.

Thinking of launching an underwear category? Consider this first:

Take a close look here. It shows the proportion of product currently in stock that the US and UK place on each price point (up to $160). For example, both the US and UK price 29% of underwear at below $20.

Alongside that information is a breakdown of pricing of the best selling underwear - stuff that sold out full price.

Analyzing the way each market stocks into price and sells out of price points highlights some opportunities.

For one, the US could push harder into its upper price brackets, given that the popularity of these outstrip the weighting given to options. Big opportunity here for the luxury retailers, like Farfetch (already up 193% from 2016) and Net-a-Porter (up 26%).

In the UK, retailers can probably buy deeper into the lowest price point, given how much of full-priced sell outs it accounts for. At this lower end, underwear styles that sell well should be moved into retailers' core and shouldn't sell through.

The UK too could build out the upper ranges of its pricing, specifically $60-80.

What next?

The underwear market is going to receive pressure from two directions: one, the digitally native entrants to the market, like Lonely, The Nude Label, Lively and Negative Project. They have easy-to-shop assortments focused on comfort and strong online communities centered around body positivity.

The second pressure will come directly from consumers, specifically younger consumers who will demand greater inclusivity and diversity and a reassessment of the traditionally sexualized imagery of the industry.

Serena Rees, former co-founder of luxury brand Agent Provacteur, has seen the opportunity coming. Her new brand Les Girls Les Boys is a range of underwear for gender fluid millennials. Times are a-changing!

EDITED Tip: Here are the top 5 lingerie lessons we learned.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The lingerie market today, explained in 7 charts - EDITED

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Certainly retailers shouldn't be considering the category once yearly. Today underwear makes up a larger proportion of the US market - 4% - than it has at any point over the last four years. That 4% might seem small, but we're talking a segment worth $12 billion to the US.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you follow lingerie retail at all then you'll know this year has been a wild one. Category standard bearers like Victoria's Secret have downgraded earnings estimates while Agent Provocateur slipped into administration only to be bought by, of all people, Sports Direct's Mike Ashley.

And in the midst of that swirling cloud of confusion, newcomers like Lively, Negative and Adore Me are having one of their best years on record. Something's up; and we've figured it out. First off, it's got a lot, if not everything, to do with the following piece of information.

In the last three months, sell outs of push-up bras have fallen by 50% compared to a year ago while sell outs of bralette, or triangle bras, have rocketed by 120%. That's based on a sample of 80 lingerie retailers across the US, UK and Europe.

Along with that comes the revelation that padded bras, the segment's most stocked style, have fallen by 22% over that same period of time. Ladies and gentlemen, the status quo has left the building.

If that feels strange, this next thing feels almost alarming. Those 80 lingerie retailers-which include Victoria's Secret, Nordstrom and House of Fraser-have reduced newness in the padded bra category by 38% in the last three months compared to one year ago.

The same figure has also been shaved off push-up and t-shirt bras, while maternity bras are down 55%, strapless bras trimmed back by 50% and balcony bras have cut back 40%.

Overall, the number of bra styles has shrunk by 16.5% in the last three months. The bralette (up 18%) and sports bra (27%) are the only areas displaying growth. Anyone who's tracked the rise of athleisure, or marked the prevalence of sneakers in the work place probably saw this one coming.

Consumers want functional and comfortable apparel. Sports bras and unstructured bras are-for many-more comfortable than their reinforced counterparts. But the trend towards ease has come at a cost for the lingerie market. Bralettes are on average 26% less expensive.

Number of push-up bras down 38% while bralettes are up 18%. Average price on a bralette is 26% lower. tweet

Why?

Soft-formed bras cost less to manufacture, resulting in a lower retail price point. The math is simple, you have to sell more of them to hit the same sales figures as padded or push-up bras. And yet the wearer doesn't need to own any more of them than they would the higher priced styles.

That gives retailers two choices: reach more customers or get repeat hits from existing bralette shopper by reminding them the product is a hot trend still. Which so far they're doing.

In February 2016, retailers began to increase mentions of the bralette/triangle bras in their newsletters and the trend gathered speed; by September new arrivals were peaking, and communications spiked.

There was a quieter patch through gifting months (functional undies don't make the most indulgent presents) but mentions soared again this February when new arrivals grew 29% compared to February 2016.

The increased efforts in speaking about bralettes is further compounded when you look at data around price. The charts below show retailers have shunted their price emphasis in the bra category to lower price points.

We've seen that bralettes come in on average 26% cheaper than a push-up bra ($54.16) and sports bras on average ($43.50) are 20% cheaper. These new product lines are competitive: we can see that in the way retailers are moving to fill their lower price points across the breadth of the industry. A year ago, 21% of Marks & Spencer's new bra arrivals were priced beneath $20. This year, 73% are.

Bergdorf Goodman's recent new-in focuses 44% of their bra products priced below $50, whereas last year that was little more than one per cent. Even Calvin Klein increased its emphasis on the $20-30 price point by 22%.

Victoria's Secret have launched a new product which gets the balance just right: the sports bralette. The style arrived online on January 1 and is now sold out across six colors and four sizes. At $20, the shape sits some way beneath the average price on a balcony bra at the brand: $53.25.

How to keep customers shopping?

Trends within the trend. Retailers need to break bralettes and sports bras out from trend status and add them to their core selection, just like t-shirt bras and plunge styles. That'll make space to tune into trends within the style. Try the following:

1. Super seasonal color palettes - with the influx of sheer fabrics for Spring 2017 (and the trend set to continue through fall), bralettes and triangle bras are going to be on display. Make sure you're running the shape in the most nuanced of seasonal palettes. Right now that would be 'millennial pink', murky khaki, navy and soft yellow. For Fall, jade teal, burnt sienna, grape and red.

2. There are striking trends within bralette shapes such as cage detailing, front-fastening, halter neck and racer back shapes coming through.

3. Build price point with finer fabrics, higher quality lace, embroidery, velvet trims and metal fastenings that add value.

4. Seeing as this trend is all about comfort, find the softest bamboo, Tencel or jersey fabrics and look out for wicking properties.

Here are some of the bestsellers from the last three months:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The lingerie trend that rocked the entire category - EDITED

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you follow lingerie retail at all then you'll know this year has been a wild one. Category standard bearers like Victoria's Secret have downgraded earnings estimates while Agent Provocateur slipped into administration only to be bought by, of all people, Sports Direct's Mike Ashley.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
LN-CC®: Designer Clothing, Shoes & Bags for Men & Women

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Discover Luxury Fashion at LN-CC®: Top Designers, Exclusive Shoes, Bags, Clothes & Accessories. Subscribe Now for 10% OFF!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Designer Fashion, Accessories & More - Shop Online at Selfridges

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Voted the best department store in the world, Selfridges has all the latest designer collections, must-have toys & gifts for all the family.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An alleyway off Dalston's Shacklewell Lane might seem like an unlikely location for a luxury fashion boutique, but LN-CC (short for Late Night Chameleon Café) is full of surprises - even when it comes to tracking down the concept shop's entrance. I spent a good five minutes checking my map before asking a well-dressed passer-by for directions. "Oh yes. It's just down there. There's no sign," came the reply.

In today's fast-fashion climate, an unmarked store operating on an appointments-only basis could seem like an imprudent retail strategy - and an unexpectedly elitist move considering the East London neighbourhood. "We wanted to keep the store as tight and as special as possible," explains LN-CC's co-founder Dan Mitchell. "This isn't a 'walk in off the street' kind of place owing to the nature of the space and location. It's not exclusive, far from it in fact."

Stepping inside the concept boutique, Mitchell's words immediately make sense. Created by acclaimed set designer and illustrator Gary Card, the Design Award-nominated interio r takes customers through a series of otherworldly spaces that really do revolutionise the shopping experience. An entrance passageway constructed from roughly hewn branches leads into a wooden tunnel with bright neon acrylic accents, while wafts of spicy incense hang heavy in the air. As a riposte to the conventional shopping experience it makes an immediate impact. Set off the central corridor is LN-CC's main shopping space - three rooms displaying a range of apparel and accessories, along with a space where shoppers can browse a curated selection of books and rare vinyl.

The same thoughtful approach is applied to the collection of stylish garments on offer. Shopping at LN-CC is a world away from browsing the rails in one of the high-street chains. The experience is more like visiting an exhibition, leaving fast fashion far behind. And it goes without saying that you shouldn't expect fast-fashion prices either - Harvey Nichols and Dover Street Market price points would be more comparable.

A core group of designers (think Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten and Haider Ackermann) are constants in the boutique's stable of brands, while garments from new, emerging talents such as St Martins graduate Yang Li ensure that stock remains fresh and inspiring. It's evident that co-founder and ex-buyer for Harrods and oki-ni John Skelton has an expert eye for style, putting together a collection of pieces that feel innovative and reflect contemporary fashion without bowing to seasonal trends.

"We support young designers from all over the globe," says Mitchell, as evidenced by offerings such as the store's exciting range of Japanese streetwear. International brands aside, LN-CC's Dalston location was a considered choice for both founders: "Many people initially questioned the location, but one year later we have many loyal local customers. It was a great move in hindsight, this area is now booming with interesting galleries, stores, bars and cafés."

Image: Shopikon

And Dalston's development echoes the continued success of LN-CC; there are plans for two new rooms within the concept store (including a dedicated accessories showroom), both created through a further collaboration with Gary Card. Despite the boutique's expansion, LN-CC promises to remain a relaxed, laidback environment. "Anyone can come down - not only to shop but listen to music or just hang," promises Mitchell. Yet more reasons to pay LN-CC a visit. Just make sure you take a map.

Address: Late Night Chameleon Café, 18 Shacklewell Lane, London E8 2EZ
Opening hours: To make an appointment to visit LN-CC, telephone 0203 174 0727 or email appointments@ln-cc.com with your preferred time and date.
Getting there: by Overground to Dalston Kingsland or Dalston Junction.

Shopikon is a shopping guide and smartphone app that details the best local, individual shops in London, New York, Barcelona and elsewhere. For the guide's latest local and international shopping recommendations follow @shopikon on Twitter.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
London's top shops: LN-CC boutique, Dalston

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An alleyway off Dalston's Shacklewell Lane might seem like an unlikely location for a luxury fashion boutique, but LN-CC (short for Late Night Chameleon Café) is full of surprises - even when it comes to tracking down the concept shop's entrance. I spent a good five minutes checking my map before asking a well-dressed passer-by for directions.