MYSTERY STORE: Where Will Comme des Garçons Put New York's Dover Street Market?

Today's New York Times notes that Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo will not appear in person to accept her CFDA award tonight as a matter of personal policy, but she has been in New York lately on quest to find the perversely perfect place for the third iteration of her brand's Dover Street Market, or DSM concept which showcases other labels alongside those already under the Comme des Garçons umbrella. By perfect place, of course, we meansomeplace where there are no other stores so it can be its own destination without the distractions of an H&M or Banana Republic or Ralph Lauren boutique nearby.

“The New York DSM will be in an area where there are no other fashion stores so that we can give a totally new identity and hence transform the area — like we did in SoHo and Chelsea,” Adrian Joffe, Ms. Kawakubo’s husband and executive partner, told The Times' Suzy Menkes from Paris.

We're not entirely sure that Kawakubo was singlehandedly reponsible for turning SoHo into a massive retail hub, and the only other store she lured to Western Chelsea was Balenciaga, which is soon to move away —to SoHo. Still, we epect a little extra grandiosity from designers who are as adoringly regarded as she.

The big question is where will this store go? So official speculation begins now. The West 30s? Harlem? The Bronx? Somewhere in New Jersey? Maybe she will find some obscure lane in Manhattan already called Dover Street and put it there.

Rei Kawakubo: A Sense of Place by Suzy Menkes (NYTimes)