February 8, 2022 |
What’s a new shopping season without a refreshing change of scenery? For its latest makeover, a fresh basement installation and a whole host of new brands have joined the hallowed halls of Dover Street Market London. Here’s everything you need to know about the new DSM setup and the ten labels it’s just taken on.
Dolly
New to the DSM family, Dolly is the London-based eponymous label that looks at beach and outdoor culture through a British lens. Lightweight and carefree, its product lineup offers casual, graphic polos and cargo minis that border on micro, with board shorts and beachy duffel bags to boot. Hyper-visual and audaciously vibrant, the London College of Fashion graduate takes contemporary sportswear and highly wearable silhouettes to new heights.
Kenzo
Down under in the basement, you’ll also find the timeless universe of Kenzo, with the space mirroring its flagship stores, but interpreted under the contemporary eye of its new artistic director, Nigo.
Kenzo makes its DSM debut with a capsule collection built from two-five piece wardrobes, each inscribed with the new Kenzo logo. The first taste Nigo’s vision for the ouse, it takes a “real-to-wear” approach to dressing, offering a genuine, genderless offering of unrestricted silhouettes in a bid to synthesise the formal, casual and streetwear that make up wardrobes today. What’s more, the assortment hosts a narrative suggestive of new beginnings, as the garments are largely retained in white.
In the ether of an all-red interior, cascading curtains invoke the sensation of “hiding, unveiling, enveloping” while an impressive sculptural rendition of the collection’s Japanese Boke Flower motif – which emblazons the cargo trousers, crew neck jumpers and jersey cardigans included – sits in the centre of the contemporary space, blooming in February as it naturally does on an annual basis.
But it doesn’t stop there, following Kenzo’s arrival you can expect three additional drops, so keep your eyes peeled.
Airei
Exclusive to DSM stores around the globe, Airei is an LA-based brand by Drew Curry and its finally making its way to London. Curry’s work embodies the misunderstood, the outcast and the forgotten, elevating these unique perceptions and promoting humanity in all of our various aspects.
Made from artfully crafted yarns expertly woven under ethical artisanal labour, Curry creates Japanese denim, cashmere knitwear, rough-edge loungewear, puffer gilets, distorted sweaters and abstract coats all without the use of cotton – opting for Indian Khadi instead.
Luar
Up next, DSM invited the reversed namesake label of Williamsburg-based Raul Lopez, Luar, to join its ranks. Luar needs no binary; for men, women, and everyone else, its ready-to-wear and accessories are “for the world”. At DSM you’ll find the brand’s Ana bag, debuted as part of the brand’s NYFW comeback in September. On the RTW front it’s all about sexy suiting, abstract cut outs, sweatshorts, skirts and ties, together with Lopez’ Dominican Heritage and New York City lifestyle he creates a constant curiosity of ‘tomorrow’ – but in a slightly naughty way.
Table Top by Hiroshi Fujiwara
Hiroshi Fujiwara is an enigma. He is streetwear specialist and part-time music producer often credited as being the “Godfather of Ura-Harajuku”.
Finally, Fujiwara is back at DSM. First launched in 2005, comes his second iteration of Table Top. Situated on a simple all-American picnic table, an eclectic collection of specially-curated products in collaboration with Fujiwara’s parent label Fragment – duly known for its place as a firm purveyor of collaboration culture – comes to life. Featuring every crossover you could ever need, from fraternisations with the likes of Dr. Martens and Levi’s, to VanMoof, RetaW, Uniform Experiment, Osamu Tezuka, and Sophnet x Dondi White Foundation. We’re especially excited about a special assortment of Fragment apparel exclusive to his DSM corner, and as the spring/summer season approaches, DSM is set to launch further collabs between Fujiwara’s Fragment and friends.
Abra Paris
In the spirit of Y2K, Abra Paris’ Con Cariño collection also makes it to Dover Street Market. Asymmetric silhouettes, low waists, cargos, cutouts and colour block button ups make up this playful assortment of sexy summerwear and slick accessories, born from the mind of Abraham Ortuño. Centred around titillating toys galore, baby devil cartoons, animated hearts and cutesy monster motifs plastered across baby tees and shirts, no womenswear designer knows kitschy childhood nostalgia like Ortuño,
Kenneth Nicholson
Just a few short years ago, the headlines would have been all about dudes in dresses for LA-based designer Kenneth Nicholson, whose vision of a fluid future dictates the schematics of the collections he creates. But his boundary breaking work is about more than just the assumed genders of his models, his classy garms feel truly without gender.
Now available at DSM, his work is a gift to his younger self, the boy who was bullied and often felt out of place. With a youthful intensity, the current collection, dubbed Cy Falls, is a tribute to his alma mater. From beginning to end, sophisticated silhouettes play with nods to 90s grunge and innocent hues. Throughout the collection, the Vogue Fashion Fund recipient reflects on his Houston youth portraying the raw difficulty of his teenage years, melded with the sense of self that developed as he grew older.
Melitta Baumeister
Brand spanking new to DSM is New York-based Melitta Baumeister’s sporty selection of apparel with subtle nods to professionalism, designed for the self-made woman to get shit done in style without sacrificing comfort. But with comfort at the heart of her work you might be thinking, loungewear for SS22? Isn’t this supposed to be the summer of fun and freedom? Don’t fret just yet, schlocky tracksuits are far from what Baumeister has to offer. Instead, ultraviolet button ups, voluminous wide-leg trousers cropped at the hem, understated pear-colour mesh dresses and abstract clogs make up his design lexicon. Though wearable in essence, sculpture is a connecting thread in Baumeister’s collections, so whether your day is eight hours in the office or slumped on the sofa, you’ll be doing it in style.
Commission
Just a slight turn of the corner and you’re shopping for covetable knee-grazing shorts and boxy blazers that find the delicate balance between practicality and personality. That’s where Commission comes onto the scene. Inspired by ordinary middle-class mothers of post-war 1980s East Asia and embedded in the memories of the first-generation immigrants who birthed the brand, its collections are adaptable for both the office and the beach. Slick and sophisticated, Western influences intermix with respect for the cultures that resonate in the lives of the designers. Commission aims to rework and redefine representations of luxury Asian fashion. For the modern woman on her way to work with her skirt slightly hiked up on the back of a motorbike, to the girl at home with a fanny pack full of cash she’ll take with her to the market, the offering is nostalgic yet novel with hyper-realistic florals, saucy animal prints and sharp edge workwear.
Sibyl
Sibyl, which literally translates to “Female Oracle”, was established in 2018 by Cornelia Andersson. Each gently draped frock, wicker-base handbag and wrap-around gowns are handmade in London. Called Chapter V, the brand’s first collection to land at DSM draws inspiration from philosophy and folklore. Meanwhile, season-less, romantic shapes and dancing silhouettes abandon binary particulars and are made from sustainably sourced birch-roots, hand-woven using the ancient technique of root-binding. Lightweight silks and linens also echo the tones of the earth. Sibyl’s simplicity, simply takes our breath away.
Photography courtesy of Dover Street Market. Visit Dover Street Market at 18-22 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4DG.
