I wandered around Chelsea today, where I am living, so from about 24th street down to 14th, weaving across the avenues, where I stumbled across the weirdest looking doorway into a building.
It was near 11th Ave, so right over the far edge of the west side, which is a very industrial, run-down looking area with noisy mechanics sitting beside small art galleries. It’s sort of what I can imagine Erskineville eventually turning into in Sydney.
This particular doorway looked very futuristic, like a steel cave, with beautiful graphic art graffiti and poster designs covering the red brick façade on either side, and making it stick out very dominantly amongst the roller-door garages. I saw a couple leaving the space by pushing open an entirely glass dome shaped door that sort of rotated around a hinge so it turned inwards as you pushed it. Pushing open the door myself, I realised I was going to have my first amazing designer retail architecture experience!
The store was Commes des Garcons, a Japanese label designed by Rei Kawakubo, and it was like entering a parallel universe. With no windows/light from the outside, the interior of the store was lit perfectly, this paired with the essentially totally white walls made it feel very ‘space’ like. And the fashion did not waiver from this design concept either, with the most surreal jackets that looked like 3-dimensional sculptures made from pillows, with mounds of the soft padding sticking out in all different directions.
I read a really interesting review of this collection (fall 10’), discussing how the shapes of the garments defy our usual expectations of the specific shape of the female body we aim to enhance, i.e. narrow waist, slim hips, by adding bulk to where we usually aim to flatter and make sexy. A very futuristic challenge to conventional women’s fashion!
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