Nec plus Ultra: Dover Street Market, 17-18 Dover Street, Mayfair, London

Rei Kawakubo, the visionary creative powerhouse behind the label Comme des Garcons, is the co-founder, with her husband Adrian Joffe, of Dover Street Market, which opened its doors to the fashion cognoscenti in 2004. The six-story emporium is located in London’s elegant Mayfair district. Nevertheless, Dover Street feels a bit “off the beaten path” relative to the retail epicenter that is Old Bond Street. In fact, there are more art galleries than boutiques within several blocks of the store, and DSM is not in direct proximity to any terminally chic hotels or restaurants. One can eat quite well in-house, though, at chef Rose Carrarini’s Rose Bakery.

Kawakubo is notoriously camera-shy and intellectual, with interests in architecture, design, furniture, and graphics, and this influences the feel of Dover Street Market. It’s conceptual, edgy and raw, like a guerilla pop-up store, with a galvanized metal hut and portakabins as fitting rooms. “I am interested in the aesthetic of things that have been thrown away,” says Kawakubo. “The trend for people taking new materials and making a luxury box lacks soul.” Kawakubo says, “I want to create a kind of market where various creators from various fields gather together and encounter each other in an ongoing atmosphere of beautiful chaos; the mixing up and coming together of different kindred souls who all share a strong personal vision.” Most of the displays in DSM were created by theater and film set designers and are “curated” by couturiers, a striking collaboration. Twice a year, in an event known as “Tachiagari,” which marks the beginning of each fashion season, designers join the store in reconfiguring the building, giving Dover Street Market an ever-shifting edge.

DSM is not merely about fashion, and it doesn’t read as trendy. It is like a distillate of raw creative potential, where, according to Kawakubo, “fashion becomes fascinating.” It’s avant-garde Japanese mixed with the best of Belgian deconstruction, interspersed with relics from a Victorian cabinet of curiosities: large beetles, delicate bat skeletons, aboriginal masks, and taxidermied peacocks. It’s graffiti and tradition, it’s pieces by lesser-knowns, new designers, and intellectuals: flowing skirts by Veronique Branquinho, ruffled dresses by Christopher Kane, classic spectacles by Cutler and Gross, minimalist separates by Zero Maria Cornejo, and of course every possible Comme des Garcons collection, from CDG for Speedo spandex bathing suits to CDG men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, leather goods, accessories, and perfumes.

DSM’s offerings have a subtle charm. You either “get it” or you don’t. But even if Dover Street Market has mastered the too grungy-cool-for-thou vibe that both impresses and intimidates mere mortal shoppers, this is not grunge for the masses. As a blogger on Art MoCo writes, “where else can you spend 40 quid on a t-shirt from a vending machine?”