Announcing the fourth installation in Building Fashion’s celebration of cutting edge design. The fourth of five rotating installations will be unveiled on October 21st with the first ever stand alone retail installation by 2010 Swarovski Menswear Designer of the year Richard Chai paired with Snarkitecture, a collaborative practice between an artist and an architect, under the New York City High Line Park at HL23. Visit us at 504 West 24th Street continuing throughout the Fall 2010.
The Richard Chai store is a temporary retail installation created by Snarkitecture in collaboration with designer Richard Chai. Carved from the confines of an existing structure beneath the High Line, this installation envelops visitors within a glacial cavern excavated from a single material. The store features collections for men and women and will be open to the public October 21st – October 31st noon to six p.m. The Last Magazine and Droog will host the installation’s opening celebration.
Gallery
RICHARD CHAI is a New York native, began his career in fashion at an early age with a prestigious internship at Geoffrey Beene as an undergraduate at Parsons School of Design. Upon graduation he continued his studies at the Lissa School in Paris, during which time he worked as a sketcher at Lanvin. He returned to New York one year later and immediately embarked on his practical experience as an assistant designer at Armani Exchange. He then joined Donna Karan as a designer for the DKNY and D collections. From 1998 to 2001, Chai was the Design Director for the Marc Jacobs’ men’s and women’s collections and the launch of the Marc by Marc Jacobs men’s line. In September 2001, Chai was appointed Creative Design Director of all TSE brands, including men’s, women’s and TSE Say. Through his experience at some of the world’s more influential fashion houses, Chai developed a keen eye for detail, a reverence for architectural design elements, and a strong belief in the importance and value of the construction of clothes. After two years at TSE, established his own company in 2004. In June 2010, Chai was named the Swarovksi best emerging menswear designer at the CFDA Fashion Awards.
SNARKITECTURE is a collaborative practice between an artist and an architect. Rather than make buildings, the interest of Snarkitecture lies in working on designs within existing spaces or collaborating with other architects and artists on existing projects. The firm’s work involves investigation of the structure and materials within a space and how they might be manipulated in order to serve new and imaginative purposes. Searching for sites within architecture with a possibility for confusion or misuse, Snarkitecture aims to reconfigure these existing elements to make architecture do things that it is not supposed to do. Snarkitecture was established by Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen.