| Dover Street Market | |
| Industry: | Retail |
| Founded: | [1] |
| Founders: | Rei Kawakubo Adrian Joffe |
| Num Locations: | 7 |
| Products: | Clothing, shoes, accessories |
Dover Street Market is a multi-brand retailer originally located on Dover Street, in Mayfair, London. It has stores in New York City, Tokyo, Singapore, Paris, Beijing and Los Angeles.
Dover Street Market was created by Rei Kawakubo of Japanese fashion label Comme des Garçons and her husband Adrian Joffe.[2] The store sells Comme des Garçons brands, as well as complementary high fashion and streetwear brands such as Brain Dead, Daniela Gregis, Gucci, JW Anderson, LOEWE, Maison Margiela, Nike, Palace, Rick Owens, sacai, Stüssy, Supreme, The Row, Valentino and many other brands.[3]
Dover Street Market is a retailer that mainly sells high fashion products, but also features items from more urban, streetwear brands. The concept of Dover Street Market was largely based upon the Kensington Market that was the fashion hub for Britain for over 40 years.[4] Taking from Kensington Market, Rei Kawakubo and Adrian Joffe sought to create a store that aimed to be a stockist for their own brand, Comme des Garçons, as well as other brands and designers that they saw fit to curate their store with. The aesthetic direction that Kawakubo and Joffe had in mind was a very unorthodox approach compared to how usual high department stores looked like. With their particular direction in mind, Dover Street Market over the years has collaborated with the Frieze Art Fair, the Michael Hoppen Gallery, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) to showcase work throughout the store. Kawakubo described Dover Street Market as "beautiful chaos".
Dover Street Market has worked on a wide variety of collaborations from various streetwear and high fashion brands. Many collaborations are in celebration of milestones or to commemorate the opening of a new Dover Street Market store.[5] Frequent collaborators include Commes des Garçons, Gucci, Nike, Palace, and Stüssy.
On 29 November 2019 Dover Street Market's largest collaboration to date was released. The multi-brand capsule titled MONOCHROMARKET had various pieces consisting of clothes, accessories, jewelry, and accessories. Each of the pieces from the collaboration share a monochromatic motif to go with the overall theme of the capsule. The collaboration was split into two releases with the first one releasing online and then later a physical release at their London location. Of the 60 brands partaking in the collaboration, some of the more notable ones consist of A Bathing Ape, Anti Social Social Club, Bottega Veneta, Comme des Garçons, Kaws, Lacoste, Nike, Palace, sacai, Stüssy, The North Face, Undercover, and Vans.[6]
The first Dover Street Market opened on 10 September 2004 on 17–18 Dover Street, in Mayfair, London. In March 2016 the original store relocated to the former Burberry building (erected in 1912 by Thomas Burberry) on Haymarket (South Piccadilly).
The original Dover Street Market (17-18 Dover Street, London) used to be home of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in May 1950.[7]
The London store was ranked by Complex as the #2 best store in the world in 2013.[8]
Locations outside London include:
The London, Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles, and New York stores all have a Rose Bakery café, created by Rose Carrarini and her husband Jean Charles.