Morning

Crosby Street near Howard, June 2008:

Today's NYT Sunday Magazine describes the new Jil Sander store as having no merchandise on the first floor (all the stuff is upstairs), which instead houses a "light and space" installation by Dutch artist Germaine Kruip, consisting principally of an empty (and vast) room with movable louvers at either end. The "louvers rotate at regular intervals to enclose the entire space in whiteness or open it up to reflected glimpses of the outside."

I haven't seen it yet, so I'll withhold final judgment. But I'm in the codger minority on this point generally -- art that accepts fashion's invitation to appear together (and it is always fashion that initiates the dance) usually does so at its peril. Fashion, no fool, stands only to benefit from association; art, on the contrary, is nearly always demeaned by the joinder. Art used to shill ephemeral, style-driven merchandise rarely survives the encounter.

But what do I know. I can't tell Jil Sander from Jack Spade.

Edit: June 23, 2008, 8 pm -- I just realized that I took a picture of this store during its renovation a few months ago. I didn't know then that it would become the Jil Sander store.

Anyway, it was a rainy morning, and my lens got all blurred:

I liked the juxtaposition of the 3 "BAD"s with the triangle formed by the traffic cone and the two long pieces of wood.

So, it's not like I'm saying Jil Sander is bad or something. Just a picture.

UPDATE (7/9/2008): No surprise except in how quickly it has occurred -- commerce trumps art even at Jil Sander. The "art installation" has already been replaced by, yes, the goods. The NY Times reports that clothes & bags & shoes now populate the first floor, as well as the second.