If you’ve passed by the storefront at 617 Western and suddenly felt the urge to, say, hop a night train to Tokyo with Jimi Hendrix for a secret party just above the cloud cover, it’s because there’s something very ethereal, other-worldly, and eccentrically urban about Neodandi Couture.

It’s also quite possible that they were closed when you happened by. In keeping with their non-trad, boundary-busting ethos, their artful showroom, which opened last month, operates from 3p to 10p on Wed-Sat, and from 11a to 6p on Sunday.

It makes sense that you’d encounter this stuff during the cocktail hour. Designer Niilartey De Osu’s body-hugging, tucked, gathered, sculpted, and geometrically transfigured lines – for men and women – are most definitely spirited. Some pieces — asymmetric skirts, ghost-like sheer gray short-sleeve tops — are newly constructed from thoughtful fabrics, others are reconstructed using upcycled garments, and often embellished with found objects. I tend to favor the former, then again, the tee-shirt dresses made from PE class unis are super hot in an Alexander Wang s/s 2010 kind of way. (Check the slideshow here.)

A trip to the storefront is imperative if you like thinking about your wardrobe — or your body — as art. (And not to get too off track, but while you’re at it, you’ll want to stop into Totokaelo/Impulse down the street, and the moodily lit sneaker joint Gems next door and imagine a Seattle where that strip of Western Ave becomes a destination … there are rumors of meat-packing district-esque restaurateurs poking around, but that’s, well, almost too exciting to think about.) I have a pet-peeve about shops that throw the word couture around as if you don’t know the deeper meaning of the term, but Niilartey is really draping and pinning and tucking and creating by hand. Slowly, with intention, in small batches. Naturally, Neodandi offers custom work as well.

But a trip to SAM Shop is imperative too, to see their upcoming collection of Neodandi shopping bags and scarves. (images of both in the slideshow) The pieces should be in by next week — then again, by that time, you could be on cruising into Harajuku Station going, ‘Hey, you, get off of my cloud.’

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