On February 19, 2022, Dover Street Market Beijing (hereinafter referred to as DSMB) ushered in the opening season of the 2022 spring and summer series, renewing more than 20 brands headed by COMME des GARÇONS, and launching a pair of innovative installation art and layout displays. Creative thinking on the relationship between art and clothing.
Entering the main entrance on the first floor, you will be greeted by the new ELEPHANT SPACE installation created by the COMME des GARÇONS 2022 spring and summer series. In the third year of the epidemic, COMME des GARÇONS focused its show on Tokyo, where the brand’s headquarters is located. Designer Rei Kawakubo unexpectedly named the theme of the series “MY PRESENT STATE OF MIND RATHER THAN A THEME” , expounding what she believes to be the important qualities and elements of the present that have been honed by time.
The huge silhouette is covered with patterns of flowers, leaves and ribbons, and the abstract and simple curves make the silhouette of the garment more three-dimensional. Continuing CdG’s previous style, Rei still made the dress into a 3-D structure, with a collage plastic cartoon girl wig made by Gary Card, showing a distinctive dystopian style.
Noir kei ninomiya on the second floor subverts the previous pursuit of black, designer Ninomiya Kei chose to integrate black into the background and shadows, and used a large area of beige to reflect his views on black: “I want to express the surrounding things Ephemeral power and beauty, although we cannot see them clearly.”
In terms of ready-to-wear, Ninomiya uses hard three-dimensional silhouettes and soft fabrics to create beautiful figures that seem slender, fragile, stubborn and brave. Binding elements and interspersed ropes, like a cage and like armor, enveloped and wrapped every part of the body.
(Noir kei ninomiya, 2F)
Located on the third floor, the COMME des GARÇONS HOMME PLUS collection explores the floral possibilities of clothing this season, creating an unconventional and eye-catching collection. As Rei puts it, “Flowers don’t just exist for happy times. They exist for hard, sad and painful times too. Even a little flower on the side of the road can heal our broken hearts.”
She chose to express emotional diversity in eccentric, uplifting, somber, and terrifying vibes: dismantling suits, trench coats, biker jackets, and tuxedos, and using blooming flowers to awaken the audience’s anticipation for the future, from Travis Bedel (also known as Travis Bedel) Bedelgeuse’s collage-inspired work, and strives to turn the brand’s clothing into works of art that transcend reality. Under the decoration of stylist Ibrahim Kamara’s abstract hand-made paper-plastic headpiece, darkness and haze are swept away, replaced by childish resonance, and the different flower patterns seem to set off the whole series with a sense of joy .
（LIKE BOYS HOMME PLUS,3F）
The clothing line tricot COMME des GARÇONS, which is also located on the third floor, was officially renamed Tao. As a major change of the CdG Group in the spring and summer of 2022, it returned to the brand of the same name after the brief release of the clothing series of the same name from 2005 to 2011.
Unlike tricot, in Tao’s previous collections, she creatively transformed fragile and beautiful materials into clearer physical garments, just like her works released in the spring and summer of 2007, the seemingly fragile Paper wedding dresses brought to Paris: wedding dresses made from recycled paper are more special than traditional luxury materials and more meaningful to the designer himself. In the 2022 spring and summer series, Tao pays more attention to the use of fabric texture and the creation of textured folds – with simple black and white as the theme, using layers of tulle, layered folds and fluffy sleeves to make up for the seemingly simple A-line outline , the details are exquisite and subtly increase the volume without being cumbersome; and the texture is added through the embroidery and intricate jacquard in the details, and the subtle printing loaded on the transparent chiffon, making the work rich and interesting.
Tao, 3F
As another indispensable eye-catching brand in the three floors, the JUNYA WATANABE 2022 spring and summer series of women’s clothing is backed by Tokyo, focusing on and connecting all corners of Asia – collaborating with the print works of Japanese, Chinese, Nepalese and Thai contemporary artists, Expand “Eastern Memories”. The series uses cross-cultural Asian elements to restore oriental memory and miss people’s pure hearts through a group of photojournalistic works shot by British photographer Jamie Hawkesworth in Bhutan, India and Kashmir in 2019 under the name of “Nostalgic for Asia”. , and through his cooperation with his creative counterparts, he jointly presents a gluttonous feast of fusion of Eastern and Western cultures.
In this series, Junya Watanabe collaborates with a number of Asian artists from China, Japan and Bangkok to present calligraphy, tattoos, traditional Chinese and Japanese pattern elements in tailoring and printing, refocusing on Asian cross-cultural art and traditional ideology— —Wang Dongling, director of the Modern Calligraphy Research Center of the China Academy of Art, handwritten wildly cursive, a Tang poem vividly appeared on the canvas; as a tribute to the animation work by Japanese pop artist Keichi Tanaami in 1975, a dress decorated with a psychedelic goldfish and a lady’s head pattern came into being ; Tibetan artist Ang Tsherin Sherpa uses a modern interpretation of traditional thangkas and presents them on draped dresses; the bright paintings of flowers and dragons are from Bangkok-based illustrator Phannapast Taychamaythakool’s Thai Fantasia for Junya. Spanning east and west, ancient and modern, tanning tradition and contemporary Asian culture.
(JUNYA WATANABE, 3F)
The JUNYA WATANABE MAN on the fourth floor brings fashion lovers a unique and novel experience in the 2022 spring and summer menswear collection – the straw hats, sunglasses and sandals on the models all seem to herald the longing for a long distance after the epidemic is over. Holiday mania. Junya Watanabe’s collaborations with brands this season have been incredible—from ArkAir to Levi’s and Dickies, Junya’s playful cool is always forthcoming.
What is more worth mentioning is the series of T-shirts that Junya collaborated with the artist, which draws inspiration from the series of photos of Bhutan taken by Jamie Hawkesworth about spring and incorporates their reflections from their travels in the East. As Jamie said: “Come It’s an incredible feeling to be in a place without any thought or expectation, just walking, exploring and taking pictures and everything you find is incredible.”
(JUNYA WATANABE MAN, 4F)
Dover Street Market Beijing
Address: Floor 1-4, Building N5, North District, Sanlitun Village, No. 11, Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Telephone: (86-10) 6416 4380
Opening Hours: 10am – 10pm
For further queries, please contact:
Dylan Yu @ 86 10 5630 3207 or email: [email protected]
Lorrela Zhang @ 86 10 5630 3194 or email: [email protected]
Hurley Qian @ 86 10 5630 3204 or email: [email protected]Return to Sohu, see more