Los Angeles Is a Fashion Wasteland. Can One Store Change That?
Dover Street Market, a mammoth multi-brand store mixing high fashion and hyped-up streetwear, just opened its sixth location in downtown L.A. But will it find an audience in this notoriously dressed-down city?
THIS PAST WEEKEND, in the Arts District at the eastern edge of Los Angeles, the world’s sixth Dover Street Market opened its doors. Run by Japan’s Comme des Garçons, the Dover stores sell clothing and accessories both from that company’s 18 brands and from many other labels—a “high-low” mishmash the fashion community reveres. While traditional department stores are organized by clothing type—the formal floor, the juniors floor, and so on—Dover Street Market eschews rigid store organization, favoring a less conventional layout. Stand still in this low-slung, single-story building and you can easily see diamond-coated...