designwire daily | BOFFO Launches Building Fashion with Gage/Clemenceau and Nicola Formichetti

BOFFO Launches Building Fashion with Gage/Clemenceau and Nicola Formichetti

by Ian Volner | Wednesday, September 14, 2011

BOFFO Building Fashion Gage/Clemenceau Nicola Formichetti

BOFFO Building Fashion by Nicola Formichetti + Gage/Clemeneceau Architects; photo by Evan Joseph

Architects Gage/Clemenceau are the designers behind a new temporary retail location for the work of sytle übermensch Nicola Formichetti—fashion honcho for Uniqlo, creative director at Thierry Mugler, and all-around guru to pop supernova Lady Gaga. The store, open September 8-21, is located in the Tribeca storefront of interior design emporium Karkula.

Items on offer for lovers of the visual wow-effect include glitzy iPhone cases and other apparel by Formichetti, vaguely deviant-looking menswear and women’s clothing from Mugler, and an array of items by other guest designers. The opening coincides with Formichetti’s new online co-venture with multiplayer emersive game EVE Online, which promises—ominously—that “military grade and advanced proprietary technology will transform how people engage with fashion and how the industry will use technology.”

BOFFO Building Fashion by Nicola Formichetti + Gage/Clemeneceau Architects; photo by Evan Joseph

Marc Bailey Clemenceau and Mark Gage’s design for the transformed Karkula space makes the space into an elaborate hall of mirrors, replete with translucent panels, high-sheen metallic surfaces, and garishly colorful lighting. Inhabited by a population of striking Rootstein mannequins, the store looks like someone nickel-plated Andy Warhol’s old mylar-covered Factory studio, stuffed it into a kaleidoscope, and shot it into outer space.

The location is the first in a five-part project by arts organization BOFFO, marking their second-annual appearance of their Building Fashion initiative.