Comme des Garçons Plans Dover Street Market NY Store

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December 7, 2012

By JOELLE DIDERICH

PARIS — Retail maverick Rei Kawakubo is out to conquer another offbeat neighborhood in Manhattan with her latest international branch of Dover Street Market.

Comme des Garçons said Friday it has signed a lease for a new 20,000-square-foot, seven-story emporium at 160 Lexington Avenue at 30th Street, in a district chockablock with nail parlors and Indian restaurants.

The sprawling unit — which mingles Comme's various lines with a range of international designer brands for women and men — is due to open in December 2013, Adrian Joffe, chief executive officer at Comme des Garçons International, told WWD.

The store will be located in an imposing classical-style building which was formerly the home of the New York School of Applied Design for Women and subsequently, Touro College.

Built in 1909, the building has a colonnaded limestone facade and is located in a primarily residential area that is a short walking distance from Gramercy Park.

The store comes on the heels of other unconventional store spaces from the Japanese brand, which range from pop-up "guerrilla" Comme des Garçons stores in raw spaces to market-based department store concepts like Dover Street Market and I.T. Beijing Market Comme des Garçons.

source: http://www.wwd.com/r...mporium-6527360