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敬请期待中文版  Designer Raf Simons with Jeweller Gaia Repossi give DSM the thumbs-up Picture credit: Darren Gerrish Raf Simons gave a "thumbs up" to the new Dover Street Market store. Paul Smith reminisced over the recreation of his minuscule first shop of 40 years ago. Fashion's newest star, Demna Gvasalia of Vetements and Balenciaga posed for pictures with Adrian Joffe, President of DSM, while milliner Stephen Jones metaphorically and physically threw his hats into the ring.  Paul Smith in his space, which, at 3m2, is the same size as his first shop in the Seventies in Nottingham Picture credit: Darren Gerrish  Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga and Vetements with DSM President Adrian Joffe and designer Gosha Rubchinskiy Picture credit: Darren Gerrish  Milliner Stephen Jones Picture credit: Darren Gerrish "Create something beautiful," said Burberry's Christopher Bailey, "And people will come." The all-day celebration for the opening in London this weekend of multi-brand store Dover Street Market, in its new venue south of Piccadilly, was far more than yet another champagne-and-speeches event for a luxury brand promotion. It was about emotion.  Patrick Cox with his pet dogs Picture credit: Darren Gerrish Bailey had literally been here before. As he stood beside the Rose Bakery on the third floor of the early-20th-century building built for Burberry, he reminisced about what had been his office for seven years - now transformed into several booths, such as that of newbie Molly Goddard, or the Comme des Garçons satellite brands, such as "Girl" or "Shirt" in orbit from Tokyo across "Planet Fashion".  Christopher Bailey, Chief Creative and Chief Executive Officer of Burberry beside trench coats from the Burberry archive. DSM is in the old 1911 Burberry HQ Picture credit: Darren Gerrish Rei Kawakubo was in London to survey the placing of giant, glassy baubles filling each and every window facing on to the street, and the internal lighting of illuminated clusters of rods, which she calls "frozen waterfalls". Another of her personal ideas includes massive shipping containers, abandoned at the port in Tokyo but then shipped to London, as well as multiple details, from till-point huts and a "perfume tower" to art works on each stairway. Oh, and throw in ancient silver radiators found in the flea market and a vast metallic sculpture of a dinosaur.  Lighting made to look like icicles shine over the Christian Dior space Picture credit: Darren Gerrish "I want to create a kind of market where various creators from various fields gather together and encounter each other in an ongoing atmosphere of beautiful chaos - the mixing up and coming together of different kindred souls who all share a strong personal vision," Rei Kawakubo said in a statement, although I only caught a brief glimpse of her with husband Joffe and she was not present for the opening.  Designer Simone Rocha Picture credit: Darren Gerrish Now of course, new shops are being opened around the world all the time. So what makes this large, multi-brand store so different that designer Simone Rocha, her selling area bound by metallic mesh screens, is moved to describe the combination of different labels as "breathtaking"? Demna Gvasalia, hot designer for Vetements and Balenciaga, got down to the nub of what this new store stands for: "Shopping is fun again - I don't know what to look at - the detail of every little thing," said Demna. "Who wants to do online stuff?"  Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga and Vetements with Suzy Picture credit: Darren Gerrish A thumbs up to bricks and mortar, then - and therefore a thumbs down to digital. To hear this coming from the most powerful current leader of forward-thinking fashion must have brought joy to Joffe, who has taken a big gamble in replanting DSM in an unlikely retail area, just as he and Rei did with their store in New York in a fashion-neutral area of Manhattan. The volume of brands, from the big names of Dior and Gucci, through to newer creations by Jonathan Anderson for Loewe and for his own label, makes the three-floor (plus basement) store seem larger than it is. There are too many elements of surprise to be listed. But the overall effect is of a market, with enticing and often contrasting displays. Paul Smith remembers his fascination with Kensington Market in the Swinging London era and sees the new DSM as an opportunity to follow his engrained belief that a designer should remain part of the shop.  J. W. Anderson's display area includes a children's climbing frame Picture credit: Darren Gerrish After exploring the store, from the raw energy of Gosha Rubchinskiy, a Russian designer supported by Comme des Garçons, to a replica of Lord Snowdon's photographic studio, where his daughter Frances von Hofmannsthal hosted painterly hand-made coats, I sat down with Adrian over a glass of apple juice from his sister Rose Carrarini's bakery.  Frances von Hofmannsthal with her range of smock coats and bags inspired by the backdrops from her father Lord Snowdon's photography studio Picture credit: Darren Gerrish "I feel very proud, relieved and happy. The goal was to do something extraordinary - to raise the bar, to do a newer Dover Street," Joffe said. "That's what Rei said to me: 'what's it going to be? How is it going to be new? - you've got to move on.'" Yet Joffe's instinct was that the new store should not be a radical break away, but rather an enhanced version of the existing style. And against Rei's concern that it would turn into a department store, he felt that DSM should become more beautiful, with a focus, as ever, on young talent, which is becoming "more and more powerful". Into the mix is then added Rei's unique vision of the interior "décor" - if that is the way to describe the massive, window-filling baubles. "How did she think of the three-metre-wide ball - where did that idea come from? I asked her and she can't remember," says Joffe.  Adrian Joffe, President of Dover Street Market Picture credit: Darren Gerrish After Lotta Volkova, the stylist of youthful urban rage and sweetness at Vetements, had stopped by to greet Joffe, I asked him to define his goal. Is DSM primarily about the mix?  Lotta Volkova of Vetements Picture credit: Darren Gerrish "The goal hasn't changed: to create an exciting, stimulating retail experience - especially now that there's the internet and instant gratification," he said. "People are looking for a strong, slow, stimulating retail experience. I believe that bricks and mortar will survive. Think of all the accidentally wondrous stuff that happens when things unexpectedly come together. We need emotion." I thought about how few independent stores with an unexpected fashion vision still exist today, although Joffe cited the imaginative changes at Nordstrom in America as a rare light among the dull offerings of bland brands. "I'm not a seer who knows what's going to happen - I worry about it," said Joffe. "Rei often talks about the loneliness of being one of few people who works in the way she does - and I feel the same with the shops." I asked this merchant with an exceptionally subtle touch what was the real art of the multi-brand Dover Street Market. "It's completely about relationships - sharing our space and vision with people who have their own vision," he said. "Gaia (Repossi) is here, Raf (Simons) came, Jonathan Anderson, Molly (Godard) Gosha (Rubchinskiy) - there is such energy in these relationships. It's all about that - the relationships are the most important thing." (责任编辑：admin) |