Think of shopping in Japan, and the mind conjures images of Harujuku girls and the endless electronic billboards of Shibuyu. But despite its kawaii-cutesy name, the cult-worshiped Tokyo design store Playmountain (above) is something else entirely: a shrine to clean, artisanal product design. Bowls? Brooms? They’re not exactly the sexiest items on the shop floor, [...]

Steven Alan is the Harry Houdini of understatement. Throw him anything—a button-down, a belt, a bag—and presto! He pulls a perfectly pared-down product out of his hat. Now Alan has another trick up his sleeve: Nike Sportswear x Steven Alan. The range comprises four signature Nike Sportswear styles made over in muted colors and kitted [...]

Minimalist, this is not. Launched last season at Opening Ceremony, Venessa Arizaga’s jewelry has a winning everything-but-the-kitchen-sink quality, what with the multicolored stones, thread, piled chains, and handfuls of charms that adorn her pieces. Her second collection, for Spring ‘11, may be even more eye-popping. “There’s a different twist to the color,” Arizaga says. “And [...]

For Civil War buffs, carpetbagger is a word with not-so-great connotations. But handbag and jewelry designer Wendy Nichol has put a new spin on the term, collaborating with bespoke textile producer Vanderhurd on a seriously limited edition of clutches and handbags made from the studio’s handwoven silk dhurrie. Designed to Nichol’s specs and produced [...]

Designers design. Photographers photograph. Models model. That much—in broad strokes, at least—is clear. But what about the artists, technicians, and industry insiders, often unpublicized and underappreciated, who help to get clothes and accessories made and shown? Call them Behind-the-Scenesters: people who shape our experience of fashion but never take a bow on the catwalk or [...]

There may be four or five people reading this who don’t yet own an iPad. Some of you are stubborn technophobes; others of you steal hungry glances at the Apple store every time you pass. But whether you’ve bought in or not, the media industry has certainly heard the iPad’s call. Later this month, News [...]

Soho has been a shopping destination for so long, it hardly seems worth remarking that a new corner of the neighborhood has opened its arms to fashion. Nevertheless, something does seem to be afoot on the nabe’s downtown edge. Agnès B. is due to open soon on Howard Street. Just around the block on Grand [...]

Natty coats with growths of giant, PVC hairs. Super-mini dresses tiered like wedding cakes, with large hoops sewn in. Matching boy-girl Mylar-looking jumpsuits. Rectangular evening gowns as wide as the catwalk. Pierre Cardin, returning to the New York City runway on Friday night for the first time in more than a decade, proved to his [...]

Should any of you ladies out there find yourself lacing up a pair of menswear-style oxfords today, spare a thought for Robert Clergerie. The venerable French footwear brand, which turns 30 this year, was the first to create a classic men’s-style oxford for women (on a man’s last, no less), and the ones Clergerie turns [...]

Assembly owner Greg Armas has overseen a growth spurt lately, expanding his store’s namesake collection of unisex-y menswear, developing a range of overdyed vintage, and opening the vintage-only boutique Everybody Goes to Heaven on New York’s Lower East Side. Now Armas is consolidating his efforts. This evening, he celebrates the opening of his new Assembly [...]