A Day at Dover Street Market

Hey Everyone!

Dover Street Market is a store started by the brand “Comme de Garçon” which pulls together designers from all around the world to showcase their works. DSM’s merchandise is marked by wildly successful brands ranging from “Supreme” to “Gucci” and every brand in between and beyond. Recently, I was able to take a tour of the store with my FIT Precollege class, here’s what happened:
On the walk from FIT to DSM, I find myself constantly looking out for an ex-school building turned high-end fashion store. It isn’t until I already walk W A Y past the store that my classmates who had previously visited call me over to the pristine, and understated front stoop. We wait outside for a little bit before three women in all black couture come out to find us. The women then guide us like a group of lost sheep into a side entrance, past a series of exceedingly well-dressed security guards, and into the front room
The unmarked building should, in theory, turn away potential customers simply because if it’s mysteriously camouflaged storefront. The exact same characteristic that would keep a customer from shopping in the store is, a lot of the time, what brings in customers. The extremely well-dressed tour guide/ sales associate/ social media representative explained to us that it is chiefly the supposed exclusivity that appeals to people; the glamor of possibly shopping alongside celebrities in an aloof, chic, New York City store is just as appealing as getting VIP passes to a music festival or invited to throw the first pitch at a Yankee game.
Our guide sends us with another sales associate who brings us up to the top floor by way of a GLASS ELEVATOR (I mean… how cool! I felt very much like Charlie in the chocolate factory) which allows us to catch a glimpse of the magical curation of designer goods as we rise. We step into the first exhibit-like showroom consisting of Supreme right next to Gucci, which is right next to Junya Watanabe. Following our lovely journey in the magic elevator, we make our way back down floor by floor, getting a better look at the extremely impressive detail that goes into every brand’s space before ending the tour with an informal Q&A session about how someone may get to working at a store like DSM.


I had always wanted to make my way into Dover Street Market, but I never really knew if I would find an opportunity to. I loved learning about everything DSM does! FIT Precollege Programs has once again opened doors for me to experience the industry in a really cool way!

Special thanks to the team at Dover Street Market for a great day! Make your way down to 160 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10016! WARNING: It’s really cool :)

See you all next week!

~ Kaela

Beyond the Classroom

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Many of my classmates would agree, one of our favorite parts of our time here at FIT is the real life experiences and interactive lessons. Sitting in a room for four hours can get a little tiring but when you have such a great class and professor like mine who always urges us to learn hands-on, it goes by in a breeze. Our trips and lessons beyond the classroom really engages and intrigues us all and we absorb so much more. My class and I have sat through a talk on the decades of fashion, visited the museum at FIT and my favorite trip-our venture to Mood Fabrics.

Our first internal field trip was to the history of fashion department where we saw the timeline of fashion and learned about the origins of major fashion companies like Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. Our curator even brought out garments and collections from the past century. We saw vintage Dior, vintage Chanel and various other iconic pieces from recent decades.

Dress from the 90s

Dress from the 60s

For the next internal trip we traveled across campus to the Museum at FIT. We learned about the fashion trends of conformity and structure through the past exhibit Uniformity, full of uniforms seen on soldiers, sailors, flight attendants, store employees and school children.

Chanel “Brasserie Gabrielle” ensemble Fall 2015

Coco Chanel clutch Fall 2015

McDonald’s uniform Stan Herman 1976 (left) Moschino ensemble Jeremy Scott Fall 2014 (right)

Jean Paul Gautlier ensemble 1993 (left) Sacai ensemble Spring 2015 (right)

On our last trip we stopped by Mood Fabrics, the place where all fashion designers and craft fanatics’ hearts melt and they become mesmerized by the endless shelves of fabric. We spent hours roaming the floors collecting fabric swatches and leaving with a cheerful “Thank you Mood!” filling the store.

Retrieved from Manhattansideways.com

Until next time,

-Faith

FIT: Give me “some mor’a” of that Sephora!

Do you think all Sephora stores are the same? I can answer that in a New York minute…NO! On Monday, I had my first FIT class trip to the ultimate modern NYC Sephora store located in the Meatpacking District. This Sephora screamed “urban cool”. The interior design was so unique: black and white tiled walls, a chandelier made of antique perfume bottles, and a wall of fixtures dedicated just to brushes. This location also carries exclusive international cosmetic brands, products and services. After 2 hours of cosmetic bliss, I picked out exactly what I wanted to purchase and paid using the fast mobile checkout system. Lucky for me and my fashion forward classmates,

My classmates outside the Meatpacking District's Sephora location.

My classmates outside the Meatpacking District’s Sephora location.

the day ended with a beauty advisor giving each of us a “goody” bag of fragrances and cosmetics. Now let’s “face” the facts; not every FIT class trip will be to a fabulous Sephora store but for my first trip it was spectacular. Has anyone else experienced a great first pre-college summer field trip?

– Rachel

NYC Highline

Hey everyone ! My second week at FIT was amazing ! Not only did learn how to photoshop pictures into other pictures but on Wednesday we went to the NYC highline! The highline was breathtaking; especially since it was such a beautiful day. For those of you that have never been to the highline, it was an old railroad that lifted freight traffic 30 feet in the air that was built in the 1930’s. The railroad was slowly demolished over time and in 1999, non-profit friends of the highline decided to make use of this space so that it didn’t go to waste. They decided to make it open to the public and make it into an elevated park. On June 8th, 2009 the first section the highline was opened to the public, and that was the South section. Following that, on June 7th, 2011 a ribbon was cut to open the second highline section. This park stretches from Gansevoort street to 20th street.

We exited out of FIT and walked to the highline. As soon as we arrived, everyone started taking pictures because it was such an amazing place, especially for  people that love art. There are gardens with colorful flowers all along the elevated park. There are also paintings on the sides of buildings that are very cool to look at, the one below was my favorite

This was my favorite scene at the highline. I edited this picture in photoshop so that the colors in the painting really stood out. I made everything around the painting black and white.

As my friends and I walked along the highline we saw really pretty flowers and plants and we got to see all different views of the city.

This was one of the views while we walked along the park

Although it was a perfect sunny day, it got extremely hot, so on one part of the highline there was a little area where you could stop for a cold drink, food, or ice pops.

 

Overall, I thought that this trip was a really good experience. It was mostly a good experience because we had great opportunities to take many photographs. Even if you’re not a photographer I suggest you go to the highline when you aren’t doing anything else! it is an amazing place.

I have to get to bed so I am not tired for class tomorrow! Goodnight !

-Brooke