What does Rei Kawakubo’s Empire State of mind look like? Coolly eclectic, breathtaking and surreal, if her much-anticipated Dover Street Market, opening tomorrow in New York’s Kips Bay neighborhood, is any indication. The third outpost of her multi-brand store — there’s one in London and another in Tokyo — features a cocktail of artist installations mixed in with the fashion: a super-sized pillar knit cozy, Styrofoam trees, lighting displays and a staircase with purple undulating walls dubbed the Biotopological Scale-Juggling Escalator. “I want to create a kind of market,” says the Comme des Garçons designer, “where various creators from various fields gather together and encounter each other in an ongoing atmosphere of beautiful chaos.” And DSM New York does stir the senses — all of them. Also among the discoveries: experimental sound sculptures and a branch of Paris’ cult Rose Bakery.

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