Apparel | Monday, September 27, 2010

0 Comments

SUPIMA IN THE NEWS: The High Line and WWD

By Greg Wang

NEW YORK—Supima’s participation in “Building Fashion” got a lot of attention in the press during the lead in to Fashion Week.

Here’s what Women’s Wear Daily had to say in a story headlined “FORM MEETS FUNCTION:”

Designers Richard Chai, Simon Spurr, Waris Ahluwalia, Heather Huey and Siki Im will open their first temporary concept shops in New York over the next 10 weeks as part of the “Building Fashion” project, being brought to fruition by the nonprofit organization Boffo and architect Spilios Gianakopoulos.

The initiative pairs each designer with an architect, who is selected via an online design competition on Architizer.com, a social networking site. Spurr, whose installation kicks off the series on Sept. 9, worked with a design firm called Collective while Huey was matched with Urban A&O. The remaining designers are still in the process of selecting an architect. Each shop will be installed in an enclosed, high-gloss construction trailer outside HL23, a new luxury residential tower on far West 23rd Street that cantilevers over the High Line. The retail installations will switch every two weeks to the next designer-architect pairing. An adjacent garden space, sponsored by Supima, will be used for events.

“We strategically reached out to designers that didn’t already have retail space,” said Faris Al-Shathir, co-founder of Boffo. “We wanted to provide a creative platform for emerging designers and innovative architects to collaborate.”

Spurr noted that the project was an ideal format “to test run ideas for when we do open our own store.” Spurr will also live-stream his upcoming runway show in the space and hold an after party there.