January 17, 2014
Weekend in NoMad: Dover Street Market
It’s another beautiful weekend in the NoMad neighborhood. Keep the new year rolling by heading over to Dover Street Market and checking out one of the city’s hottest new centers for shopping.
Dover Street Market, which opened in late December, is a 7-story shopping complex which pairs up-and-coming designers with well-established names like Prada and Alexander Wang. Located on the corner of 30th street and Lexington Ave, on the eastern most corner of the NoMad District, director and curator Rei Kawakubo decided to bring the market to New York after much success in London and Tokyo.
Kawakubo proclaimed that he wanted to “create a kind of market where various creators from various fields gather together and encounter each other in an ongoing atmosphere of beautiful chaos: the mixing up and coming together of different kindred souls who all share a strong personal vision.”
The market is a work of art itself featuring three pillars that run through the entire building, from the bottom floor to the top. Kawakubo commissioned three artists (Magda Sayeg, Leo Sewell and firm London Fieldworks) to design the pillars are they saw fit.
Sayeg covered her pillar with colorful knit patchwork, Leo Sewell decorated his pillar with found items like skis and crutches, where as London Fieldworks attached small wooden houses to their pillar.
In addition to the pillars, the market boasts an abstract sculpture that also serves as a staircase between the third and fourth floors. Piped throughout the complex, are the sonic sculptures of sound-artist Calx Vive. Shoppers can move throughout the playfully decorated market by means of a glass elevator that rises through the center of each showroom. But don’t get used to the art, because the market plans to close up shop every six months and transform design in what the market describes as “The New Beginning,” phase.
While you are shopping, don’t forget to check out Rose Bakery, also located within the Dover Street Market. One of the staples of the casual dining scene in Paris and London, it is yet another exciting culinary institution that we are pleased to call our neighbor.