ドーバー ストリート マーケットでの美しいカオスの20年、エイドリアン・ジョフについて

This article is taken from the Autumn/Winter 2024 issue of AnOther Magazine:

“Recently in Japan Burberry has opened a multimillion-dollar flagship store. [Dover Street Market] will be the antithesis of that. Fortunately we haven’t got a lot of money so we can’t afford marble floors. We have to find an idea that won’t cost too much”

– Rei Kawakubo in Dazed & Confused, September 2004

Adrian Joffe, President, Comme des Garçons International, and CEO, Dover Street Market International

“We started Dover Street Market 20 years ago, in September 2004. We also opened the first Comme des Garçons guerrilla store that February, in Berlin, going on to make 37 of them all over the world throughout the next decade, each one lasting 12 months. They were tiny and cost about £1,500 each to build. Despite that, when we opened the London shop in a 1,150-square-metre building on Dover Street and spent quite a few million pounds, people thought that it was the second guerrilla store. Today, I think most people understand it’s more than that.

“Coincidentally, the first impression was correct. We are still like guerrillas fighting for our values, still believing in beautiful chaos, still stuck in the formidable jungle otherwise known as the fashion industry, and of course still harking on about the holy trinity of synergy, accident and community, words that have become quasi-commonplace.

“The best part of any journey is what you see and experience along the way. Rather than real strategy or long-term plan, the grand design was working with like-minded people, souls with a vision, breaking the rules, messing with established norms and having the courage of our convictions. Along the way we noticed how some things worked and others didn’t. We took risks and endeavoured to learn from mistakes, knowing that missteps are crucial in the advancement of the experiment. The axis of creation was the foundation on which everything was built: progress, for the store, for humankind, for the world, being impossible without creation. Some things were pretty, others not. Some window displays collapsed overnight; some were simply magical. What mattered was the beauty found inside imperfection.

“The broad arc of 20 years stretched through time and geography, through knowledge and laughter, and the struggles to make sense of things and feel meaning. The worth was always embedded in the overriding team spirit, the friends we made, the help and support we gave each other through the myriad two-way streets. There were broad social and specific fashion-industry changes that occurred during these 20 years. The attraction of exclusivity began to transpose into inclusivity. No longer is it so necessary or desirable to be the only ones with a specific T-shirt or sneaker. We have always embraced impeccable service, conversation and a warm welcome.

“There are memories aplenty. The first one that springs to mind is the theme of the installation on the first floor, behind the cashier hut, that Rei Kawakubo gave the dearly departed Michael Howells when we opened. His Shakespeare Meets Picasso set was a delight. Someone whose name I have fortunately forgotten made an art piece called Broom with a View, became a staff member and was then sacked for whistling. We’d often find the manager of the Sound Box, where people could listen to music and buy CDs, asleep on its sofa. That energy-filled three-square-metre space under the stairs in the basement by Judy Blame was just brilliant. We all miss him so much. We need more of these icons nowadays.

“We had several invasions that stick in the mind. In 2014, we gave carte blanche to the ICA to invade every nook and cranny of the shop, ceiling and floor with its graphics to celebrate its 50 years in the very same building, where it began. The living treasure Stephen Jones hung hundreds of hats from every ceiling throughout the building in 2005, helped by a posse of devoted staff, to celebrate the quarter-century of his company.

“When we moved to our new, 3,500-square-metre site on Haymarket in 2016, the unveiling ceremony for the façade, with the huge white spheres in the windows, brought tears to the eyes of many of the exhausted staff standing in front of it.

“One by one, we ended up opening in six other major cities: Tokyo, Beijing, New York, Singapore, Los Angeles and, finally, Paris. Each one came along and just felt right at the time. Each building was chosen because of its individuality, atmosphere and position. When we were not quite sure about the building in Los Angeles, we hired a professional wizard to reorganise the spirits with crystals, music and smoke. DSMLA was the quickest of the DSMs so far to break even.

“The new Paris site, which opened in May, continues the juxtapositions. In this case, the building is not wholly occupied by the store. There are offices for brand development, spaces for poetry and exhibitions, for music and art, exquisite concerts and messy spontaneities. The shop is a place where the spaces talk, not the brand or the name. All of those are mixed together, so that the product must be found, so that the visitor can feel a sense of discovery. Everything is like an event, ephemeral and transitory, of different longevities, including the shop itself.

“And so, we come to now, looking ahead – trying to be unencumbered by mission or memory, yet steadfastly adhering to our core values. What is the new song before the story? How do we deal with the correlation of the sublime and the ordinary. We must keep listening, scrutinising, hearing, unwaveringly. In the evolution of the experiment, we need to hold fast to the promotion of freedom, creation, equality and independence, always doubting but never not being sure. Always in search of the balance, over time, between the absolute necessity of art and its utter uselessness. We can only continue to work with all our hearts and minds, and together with people who do the same, offering a proposal, a scheme. An example.”

“For Dover Street Market I think about making a new food, as a shop. I cook together various kinds of materials – such as clothes. Comme des Garçons would become the main ingredient. Then I mix in a few other elements as spice – interior design, furniture, etc. Sometimes I end up adding the wrong – mistaken – ingredients, but when mixed in all together with the other things, the whole has an expansive taste. This is my work”

– Rei Kawakubo in AnOther Magazine, Spring/Summer 2016 

Dickon Bowden, Vice President, Dover Street Market International

“I vividly remember that first morning sitting outside a café on the corner of Albemarle Street with just a Moleskine notebook and a Nokia phone. We had just taken the keys to the building. Then setting up desks made from decorators’ tables with a fax machine – we worked mainly by fax at that time – in what was to become the beautiful Alaïa space on the first floor, and leaving late every night covered in brick dust.

“Working with Kawakubo-san and Adrian [Joffe] and the subsequent transformation and journey to opening was very special and very humbling. What mattered most was the creation of something special. Something new. And this was the same for everyone involved in the project. Unloading vans with Alber Elbaz, helping Azzedine Alaïa set up his space and erecting a giant piece of artwork from Jean Prouvé. Carrying Hedi Slimane’s special furniture collection that we had made with him up the stairs with the builders. Covering the wall with hundreds of corks with Judy Blame to hang jewellery from. There was a powerful and intoxicating sense of flow. A sense of like-mindedness. Capex [capital expenditure] and opex [operational expenditure] weren’t the very start of the conversation, which is sadly often the case today. Creation was first and foremost – with a sense of daring and freedom of expression.

“During our time on Dover Street, the windows were a true highlight. Often we worked right through the night up until opening. We were fortunate to present the first windows with Simone Rocha, JW Anderson, Molly Goddard and Craig Green, and then a couple of years later with Alessandro Michele, when he was appointed at Gucci. There were incredible towers of cascading stools from Artek, the work of the Chapman brothers, and the time Jamie Reid flypostered the front of the store with his artwork.

“We were driven by a powerful kind of naivety. Excited by the unknown. Not scared to take risks. Always learning. Never accepting ‘no’. Constantly challenging. The world and the industry have of course evolved and changed – the pace more so than ever in the past four years. But change is inherent to the DNA of DSM and woven into the very fabric of what we do every day. DSM is at its very best when we come together – like-minded people, artists, creatives, brands and our team – in the creation of ‘beautiful chaos’. The spirit and the values of Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons sit at the very centre. This never changes.

“We often talk about brothers and sisters. And every time we open a new store there is a special moment when all the teams from DSMs across the world come together to breathe life into the new store. The days – and nights – prior to opening are tough but somehow magical, with everyone knowing what needs to be done and slotting in and doing their bit. And subsequently, when we open, the store takes on its own life and character within the context of each city.

“If I could list three approaches to the ethos of the DSM store experience, they’d be: creation, beautiful chaos, the sum of all of us.” 

Hair: Nicolas Philippon at Artlist Paris using Hair Rituel by SISLEY. Make-up: Lauren Bos at Artlist Paris using VIOLETTE FR. Casting: Monika Domarke. Models: Niels Arrot at Garçons by Gervais, Sien Van den Brande at Noah Management, Esther Finch at Elite Paris, Mohamadou Gueye and Noé Marand at The Claw Paris, Lainey Hearn at Oui Management, Litay Marcus and Yannis Zegrani Monro at IMG Paris, Assa Sidibe at Ford Models Paris and Tsion Teferi at Next Paris. Photographic assistant: Kostiantyn Gaiduk. Styling assistant: Joana Mahafaly. Hair assistant: Rebecca Vilsaint. Make-up assistant: Alexis Massot. Production: New Collective. Special thanks to Alessandro Santagostino at Dover Street Market Paris

This story features in the Autumn/Winter 2024 issue of AnOther Magazine, which is on sale now. Order here.

This article is taken from the Autumn/Winter 2024 issue of AnOther Magazine:

“Recently in Japan Burberry has opened a multimillion-dollar flagship store. [Dover Street Market] will be the antithesis of that. Fortunately we haven’t got a lot of money so we can’t afford marble floors. We have to find an idea that won’t cost too much”

– Rei Kawakubo in Dazed & Confused, September 2004

Adrian Joffe, President, Comme des Garçons International, and CEO, Dover Street Market International

“We started Dover Street Market 20 years ago, in September 2004. We also opened the first Comme des Garçons guerrilla store that February, in Berlin, going on to make 37 of them all over the world throughout the next decade, each one lasting 12 months. They were tiny and cost about £1,500 each to build. Despite that, when we opened the London shop in a 1,150-square-metre building on Dover Street and spent quite a few million pounds, people thought that it was the second guerrilla store. Today, I think most people understand it’s more than that.

“Coincidentally, the first impression was correct. We are still like guerrillas fighting for our values, still believing in beautiful chaos, still stuck in the formidable jungle otherwise known as the fashion industry, and of course still harking on about the holy trinity of synergy, accident and community, words that have become quasi-commonplace.

“The best part of any journey is what you see and experience along the way. Rather than real strategy or long-term plan, the grand design was working with like-minded people, souls with a vision, breaking the rules, messing with established norms and having the courage of our convictions. Along the way we noticed how some things worked and others didn’t. We took risks and endeavoured to learn from mistakes, knowing that missteps are crucial in the advancement of the experiment. The axis of creation was the foundation on which everything was built: progress, for the store, for humankind, for the world, being impossible without creation. Some things were pretty, others not. Some window displays collapsed overnight; some were simply magical. What mattered was the beauty found inside imperfection.

“The broad arc of 20 years stretched through time and geography, through knowledge and laughter, and the struggles to make sense of things and feel meaning. The worth was always embedded in the overriding team spirit, the friends we made, the help and support we gave each other through the myriad two-way streets. There were broad social and specific fashion-industry changes that occurred during these 20 years. The attraction of exclusivity began to transpose into inclusivity. No longer is it so necessary or desirable to be the only ones with a specific T-shirt or sneaker. We have always embraced impeccable service, conversation and a warm welcome.

“There are memories aplenty. The first one that springs to mind is the theme of the installation on the first floor, behind the cashier hut, that Rei Kawakubo gave the dearly departed Michael Howells when we opened. His Shakespeare Meets Picasso set was a delight. Someone whose name I have fortunately forgotten made an art piece called Broom with a View, became a staff member and was then sacked for whistling. We’d often find the manager of the Sound Box, where people could listen to music and buy CDs, asleep on its sofa. That energy-filled three-square-metre space under the stairs in the basement by Judy Blame was just brilliant. We all miss him so much. We need more of these icons nowadays.

“We had several invasions that stick in the mind. In 2014, we gave carte blanche to the ICA to invade every nook and cranny of the shop, ceiling and floor with its graphics to celebrate its 50 years in the very same building, where it began. The living treasure Stephen Jones hung hundreds of hats from every ceiling throughout the building in 2005, helped by a posse of devoted staff, to celebrate the quarter-century of his company.

“When we moved to our new, 3,500-square-metre site on Haymarket in 2016, the unveiling ceremony for the façade, with the huge white spheres in the windows, brought tears to the eyes of many of the exhausted staff standing in front of it.

“One by one, we ended up opening in six other major cities: Tokyo, Beijing, New York, Singapore, Los Angeles and, finally, Paris. Each one came along and just felt right at the time. Each building was chosen because of its individuality, atmosphere and position. When we were not quite sure about the building in Los Angeles, we hired a professional wizard to reorganise the spirits with crystals, music and smoke. DSMLA was the quickest of the DSMs so far to break even.

“The new Paris site, which opened in May, continues the juxtapositions. In this case, the building is not wholly occupied by the store. There are offices for brand development, spaces for poetry and exhibitions, for music and art, exquisite concerts and messy spontaneities. The shop is a place where the spaces talk, not the brand or the name. All of those are mixed together, so that the product must be found, so that the visitor can feel a sense of discovery. Everything is like an event, ephemeral and transitory, of different longevities, including the shop itself.

“And so, we come to now, looking ahead – trying to be unencumbered by mission or memory, yet steadfastly adhering to our core values. What is the new song before the story? How do we deal with the correlation of the sublime and the ordinary. We must keep listening, scrutinising, hearing, unwaveringly. In the evolution of the experiment, we need to hold fast to the promotion of freedom, creation, equality and independence, always doubting but never not being sure. Always in search of the balance, over time, between the absolute necessity of art and its utter uselessness. We can only continue to work with all our hearts and minds, and together with people who do the same, offering a proposal, a scheme. An example.”

“For Dover Street Market I think about making a new food, as a shop. I cook together various kinds of materials – such as clothes. Comme des Garçons would become the main ingredient. Then I mix in a few other elements as spice – interior design, furniture, etc. Sometimes I end up adding the wrong – mistaken – ingredients, but when mixed in all together with the other things, the whole has an expansive taste. This is my work”

– Rei Kawakubo in AnOther Magazine, Spring/Summer 2016 

Dickon Bowden, Vice President, Dover Street Market International

“I vividly remember that first morning sitting outside a café on the corner of Albemarle Street with just a Moleskine notebook and a Nokia phone. We had just taken the keys to the building. Then setting up desks made from decorators’ tables with a fax machine – we worked mainly by fax at that time – in what was to become the beautiful Alaïa space on the first floor, and leaving late every night covered in brick dust.

“Working with Kawakubo-san and Adrian [Joffe] and the subsequent transformation and journey to opening was very special and very humbling. What mattered most was the creation of something special. Something new. And this was the same for everyone involved in the project. Unloading vans with Alber Elbaz, helping Azzedine Alaïa set up his space and erecting a giant piece of artwork from Jean Prouvé. Carrying Hedi Slimane’s special furniture collection that we had made with him up the stairs with the builders. Covering the wall with hundreds of corks with Judy Blame to hang jewellery from. There was a powerful and intoxicating sense of flow. A sense of like-mindedness. Capex [capital expenditure] and opex [operational expenditure] weren’t the very start of the conversation, which is sadly often the case today. Creation was first and foremost – with a sense of daring and freedom of expression.

“During our time on Dover Street, the windows were a true highlight. Often we worked right through the night up until opening. We were fortunate to present the first windows with Simone Rocha, JW Anderson, Molly Goddard and Craig Green, and then a couple of years later with Alessandro Michele, when he was appointed at Gucci. There were incredible towers of cascading stools from Artek, the work of the Chapman brothers, and the time Jamie Reid flypostered the front of the store with his artwork.

“We were driven by a powerful kind of naivety. Excited by the unknown. Not scared to take risks. Always learning. Never accepting ‘no’. Constantly challenging. The world and the industry have of course evolved and changed – the pace more so than ever in the past four years. But change is inherent to the DNA of DSM and woven into the very fabric of what we do every day. DSM is at its very best when we come together – like-minded people, artists, creatives, brands and our team – in the creation of ‘beautiful chaos’. The spirit and the values of Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons sit at the very centre. This never changes.

“We often talk about brothers and sisters. And every time we open a new store there is a special moment when all the teams from DSMs across the world come together to breathe life into the new store. The days – and nights – prior to opening are tough but somehow magical, with everyone knowing what needs to be done and slotting in and doing their bit. And subsequently, when we open, the store takes on its own life and character within the context of each city.

“If I could list three approaches to the ethos of the DSM store experience, they’d be: creation, beautiful chaos, the sum of all of us.” 

Hair: Nicolas Philippon at Artlist Paris using Hair Rituel by SISLEY. Make-up: Lauren Bos at Artlist Paris using VIOLETTE FR. Casting: Monika Domarke. Models: Niels Arrot at Garçons by Gervais, Sien Van den Brande at Noah Management, Esther Finch at Elite Paris, Mohamadou Gueye and Noé Marand at The Claw Paris, Lainey Hearn at Oui Management, Litay Marcus and Yannis Zegrani Monro at IMG Paris, Assa Sidibe at Ford Models Paris and Tsion Teferi at Next Paris. Photographic assistant: Kostiantyn Gaiduk. Styling assistant: Joana Mahafaly. Hair assistant: Rebecca Vilsaint. Make-up assistant: Alexis Massot. Production: New Collective. Special thanks to Alessandro Santagostino at Dover Street Market Paris

This story features in the Autumn/Winter 2024 issue of AnOther Magazine, which is on sale now. Order here.