Dover Street Market (Case Study)
Client: Dover Street Market
Products: NikeLab x Sacai SS15 Collection & Byredo Scented Hair Perfume
Service: Window Display Design
Location: 10’ x 10’ x 4’ street level window
Dover Street Market is a famed high-end fashion “bazaar” developed by Rei Kawakubo, founder of Comme des Garçons. With locations spanning the globe, the market invites a selection of international designers to display their merchandise however they want, often incurring in beautiful and unusual art installations.
This conceptual Window Display was designed to tell a cohesive story that mixed fashion with fragrance.
Both Byredo and Sacai are high-end luxury brands, the former focusing on small goods and the latter on ready-to-wear fashion. The mix of NikeLab in the Sacai collaboration added a streetwear edge that made it easy to imagine a young female executive touseling her hair back with Byredo’s hair fragrance after a run at the gym, before heading out to her next meeting in a commuter-to-office ready attire.
Inspiration Board
In the spirit of the “beautiful chaos” Kawakubo encourages in the market, this window display was developed to reward the curious.
Inspired by active construction sites with small cut-out windows on street barricades, the face of the window is covered by a black scotchcal matte overlaminate, as if the window itself was still “under construction.”
The only indication of something more happening behind the window is a thin vertical opening, with a colored light emitting a glow to entice a passerby to look inside.
The Dover Street Market logo would appear at eye-level in a 3M finish, allowing car reflections to illuminate the store signage subtly.
Street Exterior Elevation & Floorplan
Beyond the fixed window opening is an oversized zoetrope, an early technology used in animation development. Images from the Sacai campaign would appear as if the models were running around the zoetrope. Simultaneously, the Byredo fragrance bottles would appear as if they are falling through the space.
From the interior of the store, the mechanics of the zoetrope would be revealed to the customer. Mirrored panels would reflect the spinning movement of the zoetrope, and light within, further enticing a passerby to come take a closer look.
