Side by Side

Inside La Foret department store, Side by Side’s glossy black walls signal your entrance into fashion stylist Nicola Formichetti’s avant garde world.  Greeting you at the door, an askew Disneyland-ish chandelier spotlights an alcove with a bulbous candy cane-striped sculpture.  An in-store boutique, Side by Side sells art alongside clothes because to Nicola, fashion is art.  In a quasi-ontological way, the target customers are exactly those that produce the products displayed—designers and artists.  Bright, hard colors stripe intricately constructed dresses and jackets, which you may initially need help figuring out how to wear.  Collectors may ooh and ah over Emma Cook’s clothes or over a hauntingly beautiful platinum print photograph—it’s all art.