Asli Filinta at Magazine Alive Store in Tokyo

Rei Kawakubo finally unveiled her latest retail gizmo concept that takes the collaboration between magazine and brand a step beyond words and pictures on a page. The space on Minami Aoyama, which has previously housed the Comme des Garcons Black and Louis Vuitton collaborations has been remade into the Vogue Nippon x Comme des Garcons ‘Magazine Alive’ pop-up store. This coincides with the magazine’s 10th anniversary and for its current ‘manga’ issue, the store is littered with specially themed products keeping the magazine’s manga spirit alive and well. Hedi Slimane, Marc Jacobs and Donatella Versace have all been drawn into manga incarnations on t-shirts. There are exclusive products from Martin Margiela and Takashi Murakami, who has also created a mixed media installation for the store.

Amongst the superbrands Chanel, Dior, Fendi, Loewe, Celine, Lanvin, Martin Margiela, Pierre Hardy, Chloe, Marni sits Turkish-born, New York-based designer Asli Filinta, whose 'Kisses Can Fly' collection caught the eye of Vogue Nippon and was also featured in their manga issue and aptly so with their surreal/pop art references.

“Kisses Can Fly'' came out from the Love story between two Towers in Istanbul (back from the Ottoman history) also mixed with an illustration of a kiss of a good artist friend of mine from NYC . The tower printed dress (pictured in gallery) is sending kisses to his girlfriend. So the kisses are flying of the tower and ''kisses can always fly” if there is no place to land. Thats why we have wings and feathers and kisses attached to the garments. There used to be spiders under the tower, also thats why we have spiders too,” explains Filinta.

Spiders, wings and towers kissing each other - the stuff of imagination that could only come from a designer like Filinta who confesses she lives on Mars where “the atmosphere is quite dusty, but Martians are really fun.” Whilst Filinta is on another planet, her feathered tailoring and structured dresses with a twist are firmly on earth in this concept space.

Asli Filinta will be showcasing her S/S 10 collection at the Under Le Louvre showcase in Paris in June.

Vogue Nippon x Comme des Garcons Magazine Alive at 5-12-3 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo until November 2009 with the selection of stock changing each month to coincide with each new issue.