nyc boutique shopping guides

{image: refinery29.com}

Shopping in New York City can be overwhelming if you are visiting OR if you live there and have no idea how to start sifting through the amazing amounts of retail everywhere.

Everyone knows about the huge discount retailers (H&M, Century 21, Filene's Basement) and famous department stores (Barney's, Saks Fifth Avenue, Henri Bendel's) but my favorites have always been the boutiques. Most NY boutiques are fairly expensive, but it's so fun to fall in love with your favorite one and invest in unique pieces from up-and-coming designers.

Refinery29 has been publishing a series about "The Best NYC Boutiques" that I have to share with you! I've been wanting to do my own version for SoHo and Brooklyn, so maybe this will inspire to me to finally get around to that...although it will be much harder from the West Coast...

NY Shopping Guide Series:

• Part I West Village and Tribeca
• Part II Greenpoint and Williamsburg
• Part III SoHo and NoLiTa (definitely the best!!)
  
• Part IV East Village and LES
  

affordable shopping in new york: uniqlo

I spent the day in Soho yesterday checking out the selection at all of my favorite affordable retailers on Broadway between Houston and Canal. If you walk south on Broadway you can hit Zara, Forever21, H&M (two locations), Uniqlo, Topshop, and many tiny boutiques with super cheap discounted clothing. I love to check out the vast amount of stock (multiple floors in most of them) to see what general trends are and find the one with the best selection. On this trip I found the best items at Uniqlo!

The Designers Invitation Project featured women's designer right now is American pair Shipley & Halmos. A lot of times these designer collections are overhyped, but this time I really loved it! I also was really excited to see that they had a ton of sizes and selection for the entire collection, even though it was released probably about a month ago. I hate it when designer collaborations (yes I'm talking to you Alexander McQueen for Target!) sell out in the first 10 minutes of the store's first day opening.

Uniqlo had really great long shawl collar open cardigans, racerback tank dresses, slouchy vests, graphic tees, and colorful skinny jeans.

Unfortunately Uniqlo still doesn't have a US store online, but here are some of my picks if you can make it to Soho, UK, France, Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, or Singapore to theck them out...

Shipley & Halmos Waist Sache Dress
Usually I don't like dresses that come with matching belts because they are hard to fit, but this dress is really beautiful on. It has a flattering oversized draped feeling to the top that pairs great with the cinched waist and simple bottom. It has comes with a matching V-neck slip dress to wear underneath.

Shipley & Halmos Jumpsuit
We all know how I love a good onesie...this one is pretty great.

Long Vest
This style is so popular right now, so I was excited to find one at a super affordable price and in lots of color options. It is great for layering and pairing with a simple tshirt and leggings.

Linen Cotton 3/4 Stole Cardigan
They have a lot of these cardigans in the soft linen cotten blend with different sleeve lengths and colors. The material is breezy and great for the summer. I got a sleeveless variation in a gorgeous deep purple.