Merci Boutique Paris

When I was recently in Paris for New Year, I visited this boutique called Merci, and ended up wondering how I had never discovered this trendy hang-out and concept store before. Housed in the cool Oberkampf neighbourhood, the store is laid out on three floors in a former sun-lit warehouse loft- very New York. The store has only been open two years and has a philanthropic message behind all the designer gladrags- profits made by the store are donated to organisations fighting child poverty, particularly in Madagascar. It's more open, cosy and welcoming that the usual designer store- the staff are friendly and the wares are laid out akin to a vintage or second-hand shop. There is also a cafe with a lending library of books and comfy chairs to lounge in with a fresh mint tea and nibbles of lemon and orange cake. 

Images: IT Hunter

LN-CC: London Night Chameleon Cafe, Dalston

Behind a non-descript door off Shacklewell Lane in Dalston, lies a fashion maven's grotto. Designed by set designer Gary Card, the LN-CC concept store space acts as a evolving platform for curated ideas that encompass menswear, womenswear, music, and books. Walk down an obsolete alley and some even more mysterious stairs, and you come to a hidden, fantastical and surreal space. The store consists of three product rooms, a library, a record store and a club space for private events. These spaces are all arranged around a dimly-lit orange tunnel, clad in offcuts of wood- part future spaceship, part childrens treehouse. In the product rooms you can find the likes of J.W Anderson, Dries Van Noten, and Haider Ackermann.

The store operates on an appointment-only basis.

(Thanks to @olivierlegris)

Images: LN-CC

Opening Ceremony London

Everyone recently has quite rightly been praising the Olympic Opening Ceremony; the Queen and James Bond, NHS nurses and the Thomas Heatherwick cauldron; yes, yes, yes but what about another kind of Opening Ceremony? Opening Ceremony (the multifaceted shop and brand) have stores in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo, and are renowned for their uber-cool collaborations with, for example, Chloë Sevigny, Adidas and Band of Outsiders. Interestingly, OC was actually named after the Olympics, appropriating the mission statement of the modern day Olympics from the founder, Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The Olympics were founded under the guise of creatively merging sports, business, and global participation, which OC have applied to fashion by capturing the cultural character of a different country for each collection. 

Most recently, OC has joined forces with Topshop, to create a limited-edition collection in honour of their first ever UK store in London’s Covent Garden (sneak peek here). The colourful 3,000 sq ft pop up shop is on Covent Garden's Kingly Street, but don't worry there will be a permanent store remaining on the same street, after the pop-up closes up shop. Expect books from Clair de Rouen, Kenzo and Rodarte, not to mention the deconstructed interior. British designer, Fay Toogood has created a series of stand-out furniture pieces for the store, inspired by the temporary nature of the pop-up. They include translucent, light pieces on the ground floor and industrial, rubberised pieces in the basement. 

Opening Ceremony, 31-32 King Street. Convent Garden WC2. July – October, 2012

Topshop x Opening Ceremony

Furniture by Faye Toogood

Images

Dover Street Market Market Sample Sale

A few posts ago I wrote about the new Dover Street Market in Ginza, Tokyo. Now's the turn of London. All this weekend Dover Street Market are hosting a sample sale at Bloomsbury Square. The theme this year is museum, with a vast array of clothing and accessories from past seasons from all Comme des Garçons collections, plus some other brands such as Celine, Peter Pilotto and Erdem. Most of the products were between 50-70% off, I spotted some gorgeous Erdem skirts (if only they had been in a smaller size!) and even a Comme des Garçons jacket which looked like it was from their AW 2011 collection, with bulbous black forms growing from the shoulders and sleeves. Although I didn't end up buying anything, the sale is still worth going to. It's on until Sunday 13th May from 10am to 7pm at Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square, WC1B 4DA.

Images: My own on Instagram

Dover Street Market Ginza, Tokyo

The newly restored 1946 Ginza Komatsu department store in Tokyo's upmarket shopping district Ginza, has recently gained two new additions; the world's biggest Uniqlo and the first international outlet of London's Dover Street Market. Founder of Comme des Garçons, Rei Kawakubo, first set up her avant-garde department store eight years ago in Mayfair's Dover Street, gaining a reputation for handpicked and cutting-edge fashion, art and design. The Ginza store features over 60 fashion labels, each designer with complete artistic freedom for their display, and with Kawakubo customising the Comme des Garçons displays. The result: a beautiful but chaotic shopping experience set within this former office building; antique cupboards are reworked into changing rooms, a life-sized plaster elephant by Stephanie Quayle has been placed in the Louise Vuitton booth, and a vending machine produces special DSM Ginza T-shirts. The six floors of fashion are tied together with an installation by the Japanese sculptor, Kohei Nawa; 'Pulse' features diagonal white splinters that conceal the many escalators and direct shoppers between a montage of luxury and streetwear brands. As Kawakubo describes on the Dover Street Market website; "the mixing up and coming together of different kindred souls who all share a strong personal vision". 

Images: Wallpaper