Alexander McQueen and theatrics go together like Victoria Beckham and Birkin bags. So, it's only fitting that the flamboyantly brilliant designer's third U.S. store would be here, in the city that thrives on fantasy.

Caught in the powerful tractor beams of Melrose Place, Alexander McQueen is docked on the corner of Melrose Avenue directly across from Marc Jacobs. Like a minimalist, slightly mod space ship, the interior is a white, continuously curving corridor with carved out shelving in the walls and a glowing, built-in band of light that wraps around the entire perimeter. The walls arch seamlessly into the ceiling which, at strategic points throughout the store, continue to arch downward, forming clean, stalactite-like pillars that float just above the floor and display clothing and accessories. The out-of-this-worldliness doesn't end there. In the skylight just past the entrance levitates a gravity-defying naked metal man sculpture whose upper-half sticks out of the roof; at night, a light shoots out of the clear dome around his head creating a "halo." To the right of that, a semi-circular nook—where we expected to hear a computerized voice ask "What are you doing, Dave?" —contains $800 shoes, including McQueen's square metal toed heels and sexy chain maille stilettos. McQueen's entire mens and womens collections (read: the stuff you can't find at Bloomingdale's) are on board. The merch is pricey (duh), with dresses tagged at upwards of five and six thousand dollars—even simple jersey T-shirts are $300. But the detail and workmanship are obviously worth it and are interesting enough to stir up a range of earthly emotions. We saw a dress that at one angle appeared to be nothing more than solid black sequins, but when viewed from the side, revealed a ghost-like rendition of the late-Isabella Blow's face. Impressive, but creepy. And on the other end of the spectrum, a gorgeous rainbow-hued dress (that reminded us of a Monarch butterfly) had us in awe and canceled out the horror induced by the fugly "wave" suit in the men's section. —Lyndsey Saul