Komakino sure does get around. Every season or so, this local fashion-forward menswear “guerrilla” store, with lines like Rick Owens, Number (N)ine and Attachment, succumbs to its transient nature and occupies a new retail space, merging with the natural elements and characteristics of each location. Campbell, owner and proprietor of the renowned store, tells us his “version of a guerrilla store is a shop that is continually breaking itself down to square one and then rebuilding…many people like the comfort of something being constant, safe and predictable. Thankfully, that does not apply to our clientele, staff or designers.”
Version 4.0 is, as the name implies, the fourth location to date for the store, and inhabits a space just a few skips down the road from the 3.0 subterranean edition, which was once an old hair salon school. Campbell places a lot of value in acknowledging the history of any given space, so for the new location he collaborated with artist “The Dark” to preserve the 2,500 sf Gastown heritage space by keeping it simple and clean. It’s also vital to differentiate each new version from the previous ones, and Campbell takes that into consideration prior to transforming the décor.
Not only cutting-edge in the nature of the store, Campbell also breaks the mould by disregarding the fact that we’re in Vancouver when he selects product, buying garments you would find in the most trend-setting cities worldwide. He concedes that this isn’t what Vancouverites want in general – it’s not generic “streetwear”, but he simply chooses the hottest international styles edited according to his own tastes and vision.
The new store is by far the most accessible version, with high-traffic and visibility, but “time will tell whether it makes the clothing more accessible – our Fall 2007 collections are certainly not any more commercial than the past – they are less so, if anything.” Campbell also notes that high-traffic is a commodity only to conventional retail stores, and that he doesn’t necessarily see this as a benefit: most of his clients are loyal and regular patrons, not passerby. He promises the next location will be very different. Besides, the nature of the guerrilla is not conspicuous and coherent; it is stealth and subverted, an untameable beast. Find the 4.0 – while you can.
8 Water St.
www.komakino.ca
INFAMOUS MAGAZINE, SEP 2007 ISSUE
