Tower of Fashion

Last December, just in time for the holidays, a destination boutique opened its third outpost in New York- Tokyo and London being the first two- where the seriously stylish came to ogle the goods. Dover Street Market is a fashion wonderland curated by runway renegade Rei Kawakubo, the 71-year old chief executive of her $230 million fashion brand Comme des Garcons. There are seven floors stacked on top of one another like a treehouse, in the multi brand 20,000 square-foot store which occupies a stately Beaux-Arts building in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan. A clear glass elevator slowly moves through the center of the store, where walls are covered with polka dots and shoes are sprinkled with glitter. Top artists have contributed installations to add to the retail immersion, as this high-concept mega boutique pairs young designers with names like Gosha Rubchinskiy with established brands like Prada, Saint Laurent, Thom Browne, Louis Vuitton and Simone Rocha.

Comme des Garcons $10,770 dress  Prada exclusively for DSM    Rose Bakery                         

Although this temple of consumerism is very niche and may come with high price tags, it has the best variety of merchandise seen in New York in a long time. So what if a Comme des Garcons 3-D dress goes for $10,770… Dover Street Market aims to open people’s eyes to great things. Clearly. Donna Karan was spotted roaming around and feels very at home there, stating it’s not pretentious or uptight whatsoever, it’s real, it’s the street. And who wouldn’t…with clothes that serve as eye candy and Rose Bakery, the beloved Paris cafe, that colonizes the first floor and mezzanine. The shop assistants may be cooler than you but that’s OK. They were cherry-picked from other independent shops around NY, then put through a rigorous set of interviews just to make sure they are as passionate as their customers. www.doverstreetmarket.com