MondayLunchCrew

This is part three of my New York Recommendations series.

Flatiron

• Lucky Brand One of my favourite lines of Jeans. The shops are fun and casual.
• Anthropologie Love the clothes here and the shops are entertaining. The place screams lifestyle from top to bottom. Over all is too girly and frilly for my taste, but I like to take in some aspects to incorporate into my own style. Not to mention I love the name.
• Fishs Eddy Great dishes at decent prices from old hotels, cruise lines, and other salvage finds. They also have their own lines of dishes and wares designed especially for them by top designers. A place to find dishes that you can use and not just admire.

Uptown West:

• Barnes and Noble, 68th Street near Lincoln Center. This one has great hours and is HUGE. While yes, you can get BN just about everywhere, this is my favourite location. A great place to hang out when you don’t feel like doing much else.
• Patagonia is my favourite line of outdoors/sports wear. They stand by their products and will make it right if you are unsatisfied. I’ve never had poor customer service there. Their lines are also not so outdoorsy that a city girl like me can’t make sure of them. I like their upper west location the most, but they do have a branch in SOHO.
• Bed Bath & Beyond Again, I suppose if you are sightseeing, you wouldn’t go to BB&B since they probably have a branch near you. But it’s a favorite place to shop when I lived there for my household stuff.
• Design Within Reach Reproductions and mass produced pieces of the modern world’s most famous lines and pieces of furniture. For your home.
• Time Warner Shopping Center For when the weather is bad, shop the best of NY’s shops indoors at a nice location right on the subway line.

Uptown East:

• The Woolgathering: (212) 734-4747 318 E 84th St. My old LYS. Decent prices and selection. Sometimes I find that I have trouble with some of the staff, but it’s touch and go in terms of good service. However, most of the time, I don’t need help and still like their selection of yarns, especially the Debbie Bliss.
• Saks Fifth Avenue The flagship store is the best. I’ve been to the department stores here and there, but there’s nothing compared to the real thing. Floors of great high end fashion in classic store decor. There’s something for everyone if you’ve got the money.
• Barney’s A lot of people are very intimidated by Barney’s. Fortunately I’m not. It’s definitely tops in prices but carries products sometimes you would not see elsewhere. Their renovated cosmetics basement is just dreamy.
• Henri Bendel’s Small and quint. Great for cosmetics and small lines of accessories. It was the only place to get Custo before they opened their own store. Great place to discover up and coming designers.
• Tiffany’s Nothing really to add here. But if you think everything here is out of your range, I’d encourage you to head up to the silver level where you can find many affordable classic pieces. The very first Tiffany’s purchase I’d ever made was before I could afford much of anything. I wanted a simple black cord necklace for a pendent I already owned. And I went into Tiffany’s and walked out with two black cords. Still got it in the nice jewelry bag and little blue box. Felt like a million bucks. Paid less than 20.
• Takashimaya Different than the stores in Japan, but has a bit of an Japanese feel. Obviously meant to be a please devotees of the brand can shop in NY. It’s obviously a North American interpretation of the department store. It does have a gallery like quality to it. I do prefer the Japanese version of the chain.
• Bloomingdales In my opinion the most practical of all the NY department stores. (I hate Macy’s, but most people seem to like it.) Clothes you can wear that is stylish. Things for your home and gifts. Truely a department store in the traditional sense.
• Bond No. 9 Used to be the Creed stores, but not only carries the lines made for and named after NY areas. Great to bring home a piece of the city.
• Fresh on Third Ave and other. I love their products. The stores have clean lines and smell nice without being overwhelming.
• Diesel Another line of favourite jeans.
• Intermix One of my favorite shops in NYC. If I was tasked to dress someone as NY upper east fashionista I’d take them here and go wild.
• Cartier Love the brand and the chain. I’d like every branch. But I do like the small one up on Madison since they are a lot more personable. It’s also where I finally purchased my tank ring. Both the piece and the shop will always carry a special place for me.
• Maurice Villency All the furniture I wish I could have in my condo.
• Joon Pen on Lexington Ave. It’s tops in pen selection and prices are great. If I’m looking for a pen, this is the first place I’d look. Very knowledgable.
• Gracious Home (Lighting and Bath) The East side stores are little messy but the Lighting and Bath store is relatively newly set up and is a lot more spacious and browser friendly. The West side store, is where I’d go for shopping for the household.
• LeSportSac Much loved by Japanese shoppers and little ole ladies in North America. I think is steadily attracting a younger crowd. Great prints in limited editions. I love their bags for the lightweight materials and the fact that they are waterproof. Buying it in person at a store gets you the best prices, and sometimes, the very limited releases that are only sold in the store, or in Japan.
• Coach: 595 Madison Avenue etc. Lots of stores all over the globe, but I find that the best selections are still in the Manhattan stores.
• Face Stockholm One of the lines of cosmetics you’ll be hard pressed to find outside of NY and Sweden. One of the examples of how you can just about get anything in NY.
• Kinokuniya A little piece of Japan in a bookstore. A very nice selection of Japanese books in English as well. I only wish there was one near here.
• Annie and Co. One of the best needlework stores in Manhattan. The selection is great and the staff friendly. There’s also great space for you to do your stitching in their table by the window. She’s opening a yarn store in the space below the needlework store. I’m sure that’ll be a place I plan on checking out in the future.
• String A small intimate store with decent selection of yarn. Mostly high end pricey fare, especially cashmere. Very helpful staff and decent finishing services.
• AnikClothes for work.
• Crate and Barrel Affordable items for your home. I can’t wait until the chain finally gets to Canada.
• Shakespeare and Co. Nice NY independent chain. For those who do not want to shop at Barnes and Noble. The crowd favorite independent is the Strand, but I prefer Shakespeare and Co.
• BCBGOne of my favourite designer lines. Affordable for party dresses and suits for work in their BCBG line. Feminine clothing and styled for someone with my figure.
• Cole Haan, shoes, coats, bags, what more can one ask for? Oh yeah, it looks good too!
• Garnet Wines and Liquors, I’m not a wine person, but G often finds the hard to get for his family at good prices here.

Other:

• Kate’s Paperie One of the best paper stores I’ve ever been to. A joy of a store for people who loves paper, paper goods and writing. They stock Japanese papers, photo albums, journals, writing papers, pens, okay, everything I love paper-wise.
• Kiehl’s I do feel that it’s l lost a bit of it’s charm since the renovations at its historic location in the East village. You no longer only need to buy this at the flagship store. But it’s still the best place for the original experience. I’ve got Kiehl’s standalone stores in Toronto, but they are just imitations (good ones, but still…) of the real thing.
• B&H Photo-Video Go here if you never want to be satisfied with another camera place again. I’ve been spoiled for life! Super selection and service. Great prices. I also appreciate their automated service to retrieve goods from the stockroom using computers and their in house delivery tracks that run all along the ceiling of the shop. Very efficient and fun to watch if you can manage to tear your eyes away from the merchandise.
• Purl a total mob scene on the weekends, but a great store stock full of eye candy in yarn. But the staff is helpful and I like the experience of a busy yarn store.
• Purl Patchworks Beautiful fabrics and helpful staff in a VERY small store.
• Apple Store The whole experience. Cool location buildings, and people as an experience of the brand. If you can get to the computer, a good place to surf the web for some last minute info and to try out the beauty of a mac.
• Flight 001 A fun store which stocks all shorts of stylish travel gear.
• Paparus One of the best shops for paper goods and cards. A good selection and many branches.
• The Art Store Bond Street very neat and organized. Spacious shopping aisles and easy to find just about any art supplies you’re looking for. Sometimes some great deals.
• Pearl Paint Favourite store for their prices. A little messy for my taste. I prefer the Art Store.
• Bodum : 414 West 14th Street. I love the products, affordable, modern, functional. Knowing that I won’t be able to easily buy products in Canada for the reasonable prices, I stocked up before I moved.
• The Yarn Company Great selection of yarns. Prices are not cheap but it’s rare to find cheap yarn in NYC. Small space and often very cramped due to its popularity. It was the place I went to get started on knitting when I started. Very helpful staff if you manage to get their attention and is willing to wait your turn.
• Moss All sorts of great designs in furniture, gadgets and housewares. A gallery of design items and a store in one.
• Custo Barcelona Broome St. SOHO. One of my favourite lines of clothing. Fantastic graphic print clothing.
• Eileen Fisher, comfortable, relaxed clothing. Nothing sexy but good quality and clothes for many sizes and figures. Many washable silks are great for work that you can wear in the humid heat of summer in New York.
• Big Drop Fun and trendy casual clothing.

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