Richard Chai X Snarkitecture Pop-Up Store

Earlier this week I had a chance to check out the latest edition to the Building Fashion series - the Richard Chai x Snarkitecture Pop-Up Store. With a budget of $5,000, a rectangular prism and a lot of foam emerged an ice cave. I'm always amazed when someone creates something so organic out of something that's completely man-made. I've never been inside an ice cave or iceberg but if I did - I'd imagine it to look a lot like this.

The store is set up just like a cavern with lots of different walls and pillars. Chai's clothing was suspended on clothing racks which were embedded in the foam with sections carved out - very seamless.

The carvings were intricate and all done by hand and truthfully, I didn't pay attention to the clothes - I was too busy ogling the giant masses of foam. However, I did note that there was a collaborative T between Chai and Snarkitechture and little carved out alcoves which housed fragrances from Odin and shoes by Heutchy.

I definitely recommend you checking this out if you want to see something completely out of the ordinary! It's only available to the public until Sunday Oct 31, 2010 at 504 W 24th Street.

All images courtesy of Snarkitecture

In case you don't get to check it out, the final installation for the Building Fashion series is with Siki Im and will open Nov 5th, 2010.

My only qualm about this remarkable project is that foam is not the most environmentally friendly of materials - but according to Snarkitecture, the material will be recycled into rigid foam insulation.