Dover Street Market Tachiagari SS10: shoe fetish

With the new spring/summer 10 Tachiagari, Dover Street Market has unveiled a host of new branded spaces with what I'm calling "precision merchandising" as key for the latest designer spaces to join Rei Kawakubu’s Comme des Garcons marketplace.
























Actually my favourites this season are the new Celine corner - the first retail space from new creative director Phoebe Philo in all its elegant refined chrome understated glory; next up is the refreshed Comme des Garcons Shirt ulilitarian complex; the 'Scarecrow meet n greet' at Lanvin and the Hussein Chalayan display - an exercise in precision hanging. Nicholas Kirkwood's graphite installation kicks a punch too while down in the basement the Visvim area has pedestals for each Tokyo tech pair of men's sneakers.

But really its shoes that are in the spotlight across the store (and the window), for the new season. A new women’s footwear corner has opened on the third floor housing high end names such as Guiseppe Zanotti, Christian Louboutin, Chrissie Morris, Rupert Sanderson and Pierre Hardy. Take a seat on the park benches and admire the set design interior designed by Michael Howells. His window theme is “All About Eve Meets Paddington Green” – as an ode to park life and amateur dramatics?

And downstairs in the basement its sneaker freak heaven with the industrial looking box design corner housing a host of men’s footwear labels including Volter, DMs, Common Projects, Yuketan, Generic Man and the new Puma by Hussein Chalayan product.

Elsewhere there are designer finds in every corner from Charles Anastase cute attic style dolls, Ann Valerie Hash's adult and new girlswear collections, a new YSL Edition stand, Azzedine Alaia's impeccable workmanship, the Undercover walk-in cave, and new collaborative product featuring the Beatles apple logo for Comme bags.

See my Picasa album for the rest of my pictures this season:

Dover Street Market Tachiagari SS10

Harvey Nicks targets young fashionistas with new 4th floor

Harvey Nichols is targeting a new younger and discerning fashionista with its 4th floor contemporary designer floor due to open next week.

And I'm pretty excited because it seems Harvey Nichols buyers have taken all the best new talent from New York, London, Milan, Paris etc and put together a seasonal edit that has all the hallmarks of the best boutiques from around the world. And we're talking fresh eyes mixing up new contemporary designers that are igniting their home fashion towns - so now we don't have to travel all over the world to get the best array of new talent in one shop!


The HN team say they're moving away from the conventional and putting collections such as Versus, Opening Ceremony, Love by Richard Chai, Halston and Cacharel alongside British designers such as Richard Nicoll, Peter Pilotto and Meadham Kirchoff. Also included are hot US labels Zero by Maria Cornejo, Elise Overland and Brian Reyes. Described as a fashion "lifestyle" - the ultimate destination for anything and everything fashion related.

My favourite new stuff include a Lanvin 'Supermarket of Luxury' complete with limited edition dolls, snow globes, notebooks, music boxes and a honeymoon kit. Or there's a girls-only sneaker wall displaying the likes of Keds for Opening Ceremony, Christian Louboutin trainers, Jackson Pollock splattered Converse for WGACA and Beatrix Ong for Nike. Or wear and eat jewellery by Coco Maya and cart it all around in Erdem for Globetrotter luggage.

If Harvey Nicks has highlighted a new fashionista customer that likes her hot-off-the-press fashion from around the world and at recession friendly prices, then this new department will be full to brimming when it opens on Monday 25th January.