Indepth Review- Dover Street Market

Dover Street Market opened its doors to the public in order to provide an alternative shopping experience and it definitely seems to provide that. Some kind of hybrid between a department store, boutique and an art gallery, the space is creative, cool yet incredibly relaxed.

Starting from the shop windows the sheer determination to confuse and wow its customers at the same time is immediately obvious. The current window boasts an artist- not a designer- by the name of René Burri. Entering the store there is a small gift shop type set up where you can quickly grab a Commes des Garcons T-shirt as a souvenir before moving in-between a cabinet of very smartly presented bone fragments to your right and a vague jewellery department to your left. The floor is concrete and a horse hangs upside down casually from the ceiling above the stairs into the basement.

The decoration and feel varies from floor to floor with a sixties dance number playing on the ground floor with the industrial warehouse look and then on the third opera was paired with a more Scandinavian wood feel.

The store is arranged over six levels each dedicated to neither mens or womenswear but instead the clothes are mixed together. This may sound disorganised but upon reflection this makes shopping a mixed gender activity rather than needing to ‘split up’ to shop.  The reasons for this can be debated, it could be a clever way of emphasising the gallery feel or a method for encouraging gender exploration through making cross dressing more acceptable and easier to participate in.

However as is usual there is a disproportionate amount of women’s clothing to men’s. Despite the mix of male and female clothing everything is very well considered. The buyers have put great consideration into creating capsule collections that capture the designers entire collection without watering it down or just hosting a collection of completely unwearable pieces. Not that there weren’t some completely nutty items up for sale. For example the Commes Des Garcons dresses that were sewn like flat 2D cartoon dresses with incredibly extreme silhouettes and the Balinese headdresses in what appeared to be some kind of vintage collection from around the world.

These were only a few examples of the many random touches that had been given to this highly eclectic space, others included pot plants, rugs, tables and chairs, beach hut tills and garden shed changing rooms. Unfortunately the staff varied too, on two of the floors we were greeted and the staff were very helpful but on the others we were either ignored or watched like hawks. I can see the reason for this as rather unusually none of the stock possesses security tags. This is positive in a way as it means everything is available to handle and try on from the Alexander McQueen knuckle duster bags to every fur and leather jacket going, I don’t think there is another store in the whole of London this trusting of it’s customers despite the obvious presence of at least two security guards per floor.

The hanging of the clothes manages to stay neat despite the feel that they are using every available space for something. There is one size only of each garment displayed but any different colour ways are on display also. The hangers are spaced around two inches apart to enable easy browsing and preventing the overcrowding of rails. The hangers are all branded meaning that they were supplied by each designer or label itself except of course for the vintage which is displayed on plain wooden hangers.

To sum up I believe that the Dover Street Market is succeeding in offering an alternative shopping experience to the traditional department store. The experience is quite relaxing if a little confusing but it never fails to keep your interest.