The perfect day of shopping, Part Un (From the equator up | 42nd - 75th Street)

There are many approaches here and what is perfect for me, may be hell for someone else but I’ll do my best to offer you a blissful day of retail therapy to keep your other therapist at bay.
New Yorker’s don’t ‘do’ breakfast typically unless it’s a weekend and then it’s almost solidly ‘brunch’. Now you could begin your day with a sugary pastry and caffeine injection from one of the five or six dozen Starbuck’s in the midtown corridor, but that you could do that in Anytown, USA so I would suggest stopping in for a bit of local flavor at the homegrown favorite Financier Patisserie who have an outpost in Rockefeller Center West attached to the Fox Newscorp Building on West 48th Street. Perfectly roasted beans coupled with an artisanal pastry at about the same tariff as the next guy make it a better choice to get your shopping motor revved up.
With caffeine firmly clenched in hand, move directly across the promenade at Rockefeller Plaza to Saks Fifth Avenue. The behemoth fashion department store has been anchored in its current location since 1924 and for good reason. Directly across from ‘Prometheus’ in the Plaza, Saks draws tourists from around the globe through its Deco bronzed doors. A word to the wise, unless you’re in the habit of wearing 15 different designer scents at the same time, work the perimeter of the ground floor and peruse the implant boutiques to avoid the cosmetic cavalry on the way to the elevators in the back of the store. Saks is pretty straightforward in its floor layout and women’s and men’s floors are grouped. While the designer ready to wear items are current and well curated leave the trend driven denim and casual designer goods until your later stop at Barney’s up the road a bit. As a note, Saks does have an in house restaurant that opens at 11am by the name of Café SFA, but if you’re shopping on a schedule you’ll want to leave Saks by 11 to miss the lunchtime crunch from the nearby office towers.
Once you depart from Saks, head north on Fifth past St. Patrick’s. You’ll notice several big box retailers set up on Fifth, but most of them can be found in your local shopping mall and their trophy store locations don’t carry much that differs from their suburban sprawl brethren. There are, however, some stores worth a gander that you may not have in your neighborhood, namely Takashimaya, Ferragamo, Cartier, Brioni and the new Armani multiplex which carries all of the ubiquitous Italian designer’s brands in the same building divided artfully by floor. You will undoubtedly take notice of the Tiffany’s flagship store on the Southeast corner of 57th and Fifth. It is worth entering to take in the grandeur of the space and marvel at the jumbo-mortgage sized engagement rings, but the sterling silver floor is about as enjoyable as giving blood and the frenzy of activity on that floor will leave you just as light headed, so save those purchases for online.
Tiffany’s makes up one corner of what I refer to as the ‘golden cross’. Leading up to 57th and 5th you’ll see boutiques from the world’s top design houses stretching all directions on the compass rose. Gucci, Prada, Fendi, Bulgari, Harry Winston, and on and on. It also marks the cross street where the heavyweight brands shift over to over to Madison the continued stretch up through the mid 70’s. Before shooting off to Madison though, there are two more ‘department stores’ worth a peek. Henri Bendel and the [almost] incomparable Bergdorf Goodman. Bendel’s focus is entirely women, Bergdorf’s is split by 5th Avenue itself, women on the west side, men on the east.
Continuing up fifth avenue, keep walking until you pass The Pierre hotel and then make the right towards Madison Avenue off of 60th Street. There you will find the most civilized ‘department store’ experience in New York City, otherwise known as Barneys New York.
Barneys is cleverly divided into two towers: men’s and women’s. The side entrance to the men’s side is on 60th Street and the main store and women’s entrance is around the corner on Madison Avenue. The mantra at Barney’s is Luxury, Taste, Humor and that is exactly what you will find under Simon Doonan’s creative direction at the eponymous retailer. As au currant as it is urbane, Barney’s gives direction to the rest of the retail world and is surely the only location stateside where you will find certain brands comingling under one roof… the legendary malletier Goyard proudly calls Barney’s New York home.
Make sure to take a floor guide leaflet [conveniently located at the elevator banks] so that you don’t miss any of your plastic melting opportunities. Since Barney’s touts itself as a complete lifestyle store, it comes replete with a ‘home’ section known as Chelsea Passage on the 9th Floor. Here you’ll find the Assouline coffee table books currently gracing the waiting area outside of Anna Wintour’s office, along with assorted bar implements, Adrienne Landau throws and pillows and D. L. & Co.’s skull-shaped candles to complement any chic pied-a-terre. Also, while you are meandering through the python-wrapped martini shakers and Fornasetti vases, take a turn towards the Madison side of the store and venture into the baby and toddler section. You are guaranteed to find the perfect shower gift here for the stylish expectant mother.
Okay, at this point you will have probably burned through the caffeine from your morning pit-stop at Financier, so it’s time to eat. Send your haute house wares over to gift wrap and saunter over to the other side of the 9th floor to the restaurant where the power shopper meets the power lunch, Fred’s. What’s remarkable here is not really the food (albeit fortifying and there are a few standouts on the menu like The Focaccia Melt and Mark’s Madison Avenue Salad), but the scene that ensues. Try for a table against the windows, or you may just lose a limb from swinging black shopping bags coming at you from passing patrons. If you eavesdrop (which I of course never do), you will come away with some juicy tidbits about what’s coming into vogue next season for sure from an editor or buyer at the next table.
After your meal-ending dopio kicks in to combat the nap you probably have a hankering for after lunch, grab your items from gift wrap on the way out the door… you’re headed back out onto Madison and by this time in the afternoon, you’ll need the full metal shopping jacket as the ‘ladies who lunch’ are headed back onto Madison along with you (undoubtedly with Yorkies in tow).
The remaining stretch of Madison up through the mid 70’s is lined with boutiques from just about every important ‘house’ in the fashion industry.

Hermes, YSL, Dolce & Gabbana, Bottega Veneta, Calvin Klein, Luca Luca, Carolina Herrera, and Valentino top the list. All offer custom fittings in a private setting, of course at a private setting price so window shopping is recommended for all but the truly committed shopper.
If you are lucky enough to have the weather on your side there is something special about just walking the avenue and taking it all in, which incidentally doesn’t cost a dime and can be just as fulfilling. At the end of the day, I always refer to New York as a giant open air shopping mall. Almost everything is for sale and sometimes finding the things that are not can make you smile more than the things that are.
By now, your legs are probably a bit wobbly as most non-New Yorkers don’t realize how much walking can be involved in getting around our fair city. I would implore you though to push on for just a little bit further. If you are staying in midtown at one of the four VIkram Chatwal Hotels [and midtown is ‘back’ by the way], the best way to end your day is to stroll back down Fifth Avenue on the park side of the street. By 5.30 you’ll notice the tenor of the city beginning to change a bit. Sure, it gets a bit frenetic with the evening rush as everyone who made their way in from the outer buroughs and the ‘burbs heads home for supper, but if you stick to the park sidewalk, you can watch it all in wonder and pay a visit to my favorite pretzel vendor at the intersection of 59th Street and Fifth Avenue . Getting a New York street pretzel is required at the end of a really good shopping day. It’s my way of reminding myself that not everything has to be packaged with the full weight of a global branding machine behind it. Some things, like a good New York pretzel, carry a brand of authenticity that goes far beyond what any advertising could convey.