July '04
Hint pays attention to retail


Daryl K. has found her wings again, and this time they're not attached to a horse. Three years after the crash-landing of Pegasus, her one-time backer, Daryl K. has quietly returned to the same NoHo location where she spawned a mini-revolution in the late-90s with her signature low-slung pants and a cool-chick cachet that had editors bandying words like "downtown doyenne" and "cult-worthy." Although the move-in date was in May, the designer sought a low-key relaunch, sans press, but we can now safely report the unstompable shamrock is back and fresher than ever with her characteristic skinny pants and unfussy tops. "I'm home again," she tells Hint, "There's nothing I'd rather do than design for my own shop and relate to my own customers." Daryl K., 21 Bond St., 212-529-8790.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Study fashion at Parsons The New School for Design in NYC
 

Always on top, Rei Kawakubo continues in her role as fashion's dominatrix. From July 31 to December 29, her Comme des Garçons label will hook up with Paris' Colette boutique to create Colette Meets Comme des Garçons, a retail outlet in the Aoyama district of Tokyo showcasing a veritable orgy of collaborations. The new-fangled store—a Kawakubo-owned property for 25 years—will deal in specially-branded Colette merchandise, redesigned Comme des Garçons and Junya Watanabe T-shirts and bags, as well as limited-edition goodies from the likes of Undercover and Prada. Also available will be one-offs from third-party partnerships, such as Vans and Raf Simons, Sofia Coppola and Smythson stationary, and Marc Jacobs and Olympia Le Tan. They're so whipped! Colette Meets Comme des Garçons, 5-12-3 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, 107-0062 Tokyo, +81 (0) 3 5468 8301


If the name Rodeo Drive conjures images of faux Greek columns and yellow awnings, check out number 343, Prada's new Los Angeles address. Designed by Rem Koolhaas and his Office of Metropolitan Architecture, the mega-boutique is the third hub in the Prada network—New York and Tokyo being the other two—and continues brainy Miuccia's commitment to forward design. Three years and undisclosed millions in the making, the result is a smorgasbord of materials, forms and colors on three levels—mahogany pyramid stairs, checkerboard marble floors, aluminum tunnels, seafoam-colored sponge walls—loaded down with the label's ready-to-wear, sport, shoe, accessory and beauty collections for men and women. With its sunlight-flooded, casual interior, vast VIP lounge and hi-tech effects rivaling a Hollywood blockbuster, the store decidedly belongs to L.A. Just don't call it a flagship; Prada calls it an "epicenter"—an odd choice for an earthquake-rattled city. Then again, it's already shaping up to be a hit of seismic proportions. -Suleman Anaya

With its small black interior sans décor, Pressing Shop could easily be mistaken for a shoebox, were it not for the constant stream of hip-whipped customers, many of whom have their Polaroids taped to the window, pouring into the new menswear store. Located in the Marais, the shop carries only a small number of the most directional pieces from sought-after men's labels on the Paris-London exchange, including Kim Jones, Les Hommes, Henrik Vibskov, Ziad Ghanem, Moritz Rogosky, Sébastien Meunier, Stephan Schneider, Gaspard Yurkievich, Kostas Murkudis and Peter Jensen, as well as grooming supplies from Savage Beauty and accessories from Bernhard Willhelm. Soon you'll be pressing your face against the window, too. Not to be confused with the PR company of a similar name, Pressing Shop can be found at 13 rue du roi de Sicile, 75004, +33 (0) 1 40 29 90 97.
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