DOWNTOWN BOUTIQUES TO INSPIRE YOUR NEXT SHOPPING ADVENTURE
New York is a shopper’s paradise, with thousands of high-end brands and small label boutiques choosing the city for their brick and mortar stores. Downtown Manhattan is particularly a delight for its Soho, Tribeca and other neighborhood streets that a warren of cobbles, and fascinating architecture where many New Yorker’s to shop. Here, we curate some of our favorite downtown boutiques.
Proprietor and optic wear juggernaut, Selima Salaun carries some of the best eyewear fashion in NYC. Her first store opened in Manhattan’s trendy SoHo neighbourhood in 1993, and is the flagship her optic empire with seven additional stores across New York and Paris, France. In addition to the rare, vintage, and cutting edge fashion eyewear that she carries in her stores, Salaun designs her own collections stocked by retail shops like Barneys, New York. She occasionally collaborates with an eclectic mix of personalities, such as Iris Apfel at Le Bon Marché, establishing herself as one of New York’s premiere optic boutiques to find the perfect pair of shades.
59 Wooster Street, New York; T. 212.343.9490
When Carol Lim and Humberto Leon opened their first Opening Ceremony location in New York, their mission was to create an outpost to stock with items and clothing that reflected their love for art, travel and fashion. Over the years, the store collaborated with brands like Rodarte, Topshop, Pendleton, and Maison Martin Margiela and continues to carry a wide range of clothing and accessories by designers such as Alexander Wang, Proenza Schouler, Patrik Ervell, and Pamela Love. There New York location also has a shoe gallery in the basement, a kid’s corner, a bookshop, and four floors of womenswear.
35 Howard St New York; T. 212.219.2688
The Apartment by The Line – New York
Some moan about online shopping as being a dissociative experience, where the tactile, real time event of actually walking into a store is omitted for the ease of shopping from home. The Apartment by The Line, which opened in a SoHo loft in 2014 and addresses the need for getting off that couch and actually perusing for beautiful merchandise. This a by appointment only boutique is staged for shoppers to walk through the living room, dinning room, kitchen, dressing room closet and so on, and soak up a lavish lifestyle before their eyes. They sell everything from clothes by designers like Calvin Klein to Bauer pottery, and all at a pretty penny. But if you’re up for a new shopping experience and want to stroll through a highly curated mash up of beautiful and rarefied objects, make your appointment today.
76 Greene Street 3rd Floor, New Work; T. 917.460.7196
Retail and accessories designer, Martin Keehn, opened shop in 2010 in a tiny headquarters on the Lower East Side. When he’s not doing editorial consulting or celebrity styling, you can find him here creating original pieces that buck against the trends, but are exquisitely constructed and hip. Think hoodies and sweat paints constructed using unique fabrics, but also trans-seasonal separates, back packs belts and and tots that you won’t find elsewhere in Manhattan. It’s the kind of place that you come to shop for one-of-a-kind pieces that nobody else will have. According to Keehn, his work is about twisting American classics and making them somehow sexy and globally utilitarian in their elegance.
27 1/2 Essex Street, New York
Small batch printing using tools from the 19th and 20th century is not a common practice anymore in New York. But if you find yourself downtown near the South Street Seaport you ought to pay a visit to Bowne & Co. Stationers, which is inside the South Street Seaport Museum. Robert Bowne set up the small batch printing shop in 1775, and today his tradition lives on at 211 Water Street in the historic seaport district. They host book launches and other special events, but their beautiful hand printed cards by the company’s new artist and master printer Robert Warner, are a true find and the perfect gift from another era.
211 Water Street, New York; T. 646-315-4478
Words by Rocky Casale
