Obsession at Dover Street Market
Italo Zucchelli, the creative director of Calvin Klein menswear, has been a fan of Dover Street Market since it was established in London a decade ago. “I went as soon as it opened,” he recalls. “It was the talk of the town—and still to this day. I was in London a couple of weeks ago and I had a little time and it was the first place I went.”
When the president of Comme des Garçons Adrian Joffe approached Zucchelli through a mutual friend to discuss a Dover Street Market collaboration, Zucchelli was thrilled. “I think it’s the most sophisticated and interesting concept of a department store that there is,” he says. “So I was very excited.”
Today, a Calvin Klein pop-up store will launch at DSM’s New York outpost. Accompanying the pop-up are three new, exclusive pieces inspired by Zucchelli’s F/W 2014 Calvin Klein collection: a zip-front sweatshirt made from a wide, olive-green mesh echoes the lining of several Fall/Winter coats and jackets. A nylon bomber jacket emblazoned with “Obsession” (the name of the classic Calvin fragrance) picks up on similarly branded sweatshirts from the collection. The final piece, a sweatshirt with “Escape” on the front, was shown on the runway but never produced.
These three capsule pieces will also be available at Dover Street Market in London and Tokyo, and Zucchelli will travel to Tokyo to launch a similar pop-up later this month. The presentation of the pieces, however, will be tailored to each individual store, with what Zucchelli describes as a “clean cut” installation in New York and a more “complicated and abstract” installation in Tokyo. “[Each store] has a different flavor,” remarks Zucchelli. “They’re all very consistent with what Dover Street Market is about as a concept, but I think it’s great that each of them have their own little differences that relate more to the city they’re in.”
CALVIN KLEIN’S COLLABORATION WITH DOVER STREET MARKET LAUNCHES TODAY, OCTOBER 9, IN NEW YORK AND ON OCTOBER 25 IN TOKYO.