<p>I’ll be taking my Ds (16 and 13) to NYC for shopping and shows in a few weeks. Someone suggested the Fulton St. Mall in Brooklyn for great shopping at low prices, but when I look at the directory of stores, it doesn’t look all that great. Opinions?</p>
<p>We know we’re going to hit Century 21 early one morning. Zara, TopShop, Uniqlo and H&M in SoHo. Mexx on 5th Avenue.</p>
<p>Any other ideas? (Clothing and acceessories) We come from somewhat of a shoppers paradise as it is, so I’m looking for stores we don’t have in Dallas.</p>
<p>Ooh - I have to second Henri Bendel. That is one of my favorite stores in the world. </p>
<p>I don’t know what you have in Dallas, but if you want to avoid department stores and designer boutiques, head down to Soho (the area just south of Greenwich Village and south of Houston Street) and walk around. There are many, many unique stores (though, unfortunately, less now than there used to be) that carry a wide variety of clothing and accessories that you may just love. Take a stroll down West Broadway (south of Houston) and the adjascent streets for some great shops and restaurants, too.</p>
<p>Century 21 can be a good store to look around in, but it is a bit of a mess to find things (no real organization among the racks) and the dressing rooms are very few and far between. It’s very hit or miss. Many people just start trying things on out in the open (with tank tops or something similar on underneath). Locals just buy things, bring them home to try them on, and then return whatever doesn’t fit.</p>
<p>This will really show my age, but is Canal Street Jeans (on West Broadway?) still open? I used to love that store - talk about disorganized funkiness.</p>
<p>I’d skip the Fulton st Mall entirely unless your Ds are interested in every imaginable variety of sneaker, cheap cell phones, and overpriced bling. Even the Macy’s there is second-rate compared to the one in Herald Square. Most interesting place for a teen to shop near downtown Brooklyn might be some of the small shops and such in nearby Ft. Greene along Fulton Ave. and some of the side streets.This is around The Brooklyn Academy of Music and Brooklyn Tech High School. </p>
<p>For offbeat teenage stuff, however, I have taken out of town relatives to three places and they’ve loved them all: The east village (St. Marks Place & 2nd Ave is the epicenter) A stroll down 125th St in Harlem (bewtween 5th and St. Nicholas) where the street vendors are second to none and there actually a few decent place to eat. Its perfectly safe if you’re worried about that. Third spot would be on lower Broadway between St. Marks’ and Canal, a Mecca of youth-oriented stuff. You’ll find some national brand-name stiff here, like Armani. But also lots of local and more affordable stores too. And yes, Canal Jeans, which was along this stretch, is long gone.</p>
<p>Missypie - I don’t recommend Fulton St mall (it’s pretty seedy). Your list of stores is great. There is a H&M on Fifth Avenue (midtown - around 51st st?) too. I agree with sallyawp’s recommendation of West Broadway. You might also want to check topbutton.com to see if there are any sample sales that week you would be interested in.</p>
<p>fulton street mall is definitely not worth the trip- it will be a waste of time.</p>
<p>I agree with Sally, centry 21 can be hit or miss. If you go your best bet would be to get there when they first open at 7:45 am . Midday at century’s can be a mess.</p>
<p>Last visit we were staying down at the Embassy Suites so we walked over to Century 21 right when they opened. That was great but I could see how things would get insane very quickly.</p>
<p>I wonder if your informants might have been talking about the shops around what used to be Fulton Fish Market in lower Manhattan (J. Crew and stores like that–basic somewhat upscale mall stores)–only reason I can think of to have recommended that would be because of the proximity to a historic area–but at least makes more sense than the Fulton St Mall in Brooklyn.</p>
<p>One additional suggestion beyond what others have said: my own suburb-raised daughter was very impressed when I took her to the “real” Lord and Taylor and Bloomingdale’s in Manhattan several years ago–there really is something about the original multilevel dept stores that even our nicely stocked mall branches of the same chains lack.</p>
<p>Missypie,
I’m definitely not the one who can help you as I am not a New Yorker. My D lives in NYC, however. I will rely on others to help you out. However, do you have Urban Outfitters in Texas? This is a chain and so not unique to NYC. But if your kids do not have it where you live, I suggest going there (several locations in NYC). My girls like it and it is one of the main stores where my younger one gets her wardrobe. I think girls your girls’ ages will also like it. Obviously if you already have it at home, no big deal then. </p>
<p>Forgive me for the slight thread jack but it is related, I think…</p>
<p>But while we are on the subject of clothing stores for girls in NYC…and some New Yorkers “in the know” are reading/posting…</p>
<p>My D is 20 and just graduated college (in NYC) and still lives in the city. A couple months ago she needed a dressy dress for a performance and her schedule was so insane that she had little time to shop and I didn’t know where she should look in the city and so I looked up some stores online that I know are in the city (but are not single stores) and found some dresses and told her to go look and she only spent a couple hours total on this and wound up with nothing. She wore an old dress that she felt sufficed. She looked OK but was not as dressed up as the other young women. Granted, what do I know as this performance led to some very positive things in her life. </p>
<p>However, next month she is in a performance way bigger where she must wear a dressy dress…think “cocktail dress” type dress. Nothing she owns suffices and I believe she may even agree with me this time. She better, LOL…truly she doesn’t have the right thing for this. She also has a bit more time to look this time (she works and is very busy but not like when in school) but can’t waste time going to the wrong places. I told her to ask her friends who all have dresses like this (I have been to enough events of hers to see this first hand!) and find out where they shop (she says she will, ha). </p>
<p>But now that I am reading this thread and see all these people who know NYC stores…can you recommend a store that has short dressy dresses for a 20 year old? I prefer something under $200. Thanks. Perhaps it may help missypie with her girls too in case they are also looking for any dressy clothes and not every day clothes (which is what Urban Outfitters is good for!).</p>
<p>PS…my D is truly a “New Yorker” now…has been for the past four years and will be permanently living there. BUT…she grew up as a hick in rural Vermont. (where the shopping is nothing to write home about but on the other hand, when she was just home, she did her clothes shopping…at Urban Outfitters…and I think she thinks shopping for clothes in Manhattan is overwhelming and bought more here than there, ironically…then again, she had the time which she does not have there).</p>
<p>I asked this question on another message board and the reply was definitely to go to the Fulton St. Mall in Brooklyn…the lady was so enthusiastic about how her nieces had loved it that it would have seemed rude to doubt her… so I moved the question over here!</p>
<p>I know it may be crazy to shop on line if you live in Manhattan, but see if your D can find anything on Windsor’s web site. We have the stores here but there aren’t any in NYC. I mention it because they have a huge selection and MANY of them are $59. I wouldn’t buy one for me because I keep my clothes forever, but for a dress that will only be worn a few times they are fantastic.</p>
<p>soozievt - if you have the time, I think a trip to Century 21 is worth it. Yes, it’s chaotic, and you have to have a plan of sorts, but I think their prices are worth it. </p>
<p>I’ve also been in the market for a nice dress for a wedding at the end of this month, and had good luck at Nordstroms (found many for under $200). I would also highly suggest White House/Black Market - have her look on-line before going into a store to see if they have things along the lines she is looking. I actually considered several dresses from this store, before going with the one from Nordstroms. White House/Black Market is D2’s favorite store, so your daughter need not think it is an old lady’s store! I actually bought something to wear from there for a funeral a couple of weeks ago.</p>
<p>missypie…I personally do all my shopping online and used to do a lot of that for my girls when they lived at home too. But that doesn’t work for my D in NYC because receiving packages is difficult where she lives in Brooklyn and the last time I did that (this past winter)…it took her over a month to retrieve it at the post office and only did so when I happened to be in town with her and it was a major hassle as we had to wait like two hours in line to retrieve the package and so we no longer ship packages to her in NYC. No more online shopping for her (in this case, she was home for the holidays and I had it shipped here to VT but the shipping took longer than usual and the items arrived after she went back to NYC and so I had to ship them ahead to NYC…never again!). </p>
<p>As far as only being worn a few times…my feeling is she will wear the dress many times over as I can already think of several occasions when she should have worn a dress like this in the first place but did not (I can think of something I am going to in NYC next week where she will be honored where she should wear such a dress but will wear one she already owns I am sure). Being a performer, she could use this dress in the future. It is just that the big thing she needs it for next month absolutely can’t be done wearing any of her current dresses…not dressy enough, too trendy and the like. I did see some dresses online a couple months ago that had stores in NYC (again, not single stores but chains and so that’s how I knew of the stores) but nothing worked out. So, I’m kinda also asking about stores with names that I would not know about. At the time, I was hoping she would buy a certain dress at Anthropologie and I even called the store in NYC closest to where she was every day in the city and they had it in stock but nothing transpired with her and she had no time. Part of it may be her…LOL…becasue when she was just home in VT, we went into a store that had a lot of these types of dresses, many that would be great for her and she just didn’t feel like trying any on that day and just got regular clothes at Urban Outfitters. Kinda killed me. But there is WAYYYYY more in NYC…and I am just curious which stores there one might suggest for this kind of thing and for someone her age. (again, she has a lot of friends she could ask and it is me who wants to know and I will likely pass on the suggestions).</p>
<p>Or maybe Zara for the dress? I don’t know what Zara is like in Manhattan. My D bought a very cute dress at Zara in Barcelona - it was a very “young” store. We were excited when Zara opened in Dallas but it is a lot “older” - I’m more likely to find something I like there than my Ds.</p>
<p>I also looked at Nordstroms online a couple months ago for a dress for her (I tend to scout online and then send my D’s links) and saw some but she didn’t want to have anything shipped that time (see my earlier post on the hassles with her getting a package) and there is no Nordstroms in NYC. So, I sent her links to dresses at stores (chains) that were also in NYC and she chose some and went shopping to look for them but spent very little time looking and it did not work out that time. That is why I was curious about clothing stores for dresses that are not chains that don’t have names I would even know about. She did not like anything in Macy’s that time as I had sent her there too (not sure if what I saw online was available in Herald Square or not and that may have been an issue). </p>
<p>I’ll look up the store you mentioned…White House / Black Market but I think I looked that one up a few months ago already but not sure…and they’d have to be in NYC.</p>
<p>missypie, actually this D wears a lot of dresses and has many cute ones but none are dressy enough for this performance…it needs to be more of a cocktail party dress and not like the dresses she has now from Urban Outfitters which are trendy cute dresses that I like but don’t fit this purpose.</p>
<p>A good place to buy dresses and shoes for proper occassions without breaking your piggy bank is Lord & Taylor on Fifth and 39th. They have the best cocktail dresses and special occassion dresses for around 200 or less. Their shoe department in the city has more selection than anywhere else. If you are looking for Prada or Gucci, not the right store. L&T in NYC is nothing like L&T in the burbs. My 20 year old daughter stops by there for shoes every time she comes in the city. They always have 20% off coupon, make sure your daughter prints one off from online before she shops there.</p>
<p>Interesting. We in the hinderlands sort of think of New Yorkers as having the world at their fingertips. But I guess lots of things are more difficult there. I have an odd shoe size and if it wasn’t for zappos.com, I’d be barefoot. Better not move to NYC!</p>
<p>missy…she had no trouble getting packages her first 3 years in NYC. The first two were in an NYU dorm and she got packages there. Then she lived in an upscale type building in junior year that had a doorman who took packages. But this past year, she lived in an apartment in Brooklyn and now lives in a different apartment in Brooklyn and these are walk ups, no doorman or place to get a package and going to the post office was too much of a hassle and too much time and I’m not bothering with that again. And then there are the returns. I order online ALL the time but I live in a rural area with no shopping and a lot of driving to get to where there are stores and getting packages here is EASY. Going to the post office is also easy here…we drive and the lines are no longer than two people deep and five minutes. Our experience at the post office in Brooklyn was insane!!</p>
<p>OldFort…I did look up Lord & Taylor a few months ago when she also needed such a dress (but never got one) as I grew up going to Lord and Taylor in Philadelphia as a kid. I’ll look at their site again. I forget what happened that time (I looked up so much and it was a while ago and is fuzzy in my mind now). There are some stores where the dresses were more like $300 and that is too much. But thanks for the suggestion if you say your D likes it!</p>
(where the shopping is nothing to write home about but on the other hand, when she was just home, she did her clothes shopping…at Urban Outfitters…and I think she thinks shopping for clothes in Manhattan is overwhelming and bought more here than there, ironically…then again, she had the time which she does not have there).</p>