New York — Fifth Avenue to Tribeca
The American arc in one line: uptown temples and Madison dandies, then the subway south to the Village’s 1838 apothecary, a shrine of shoes, SoHo’s denim embassy, and the tailoring salon that ends all arguments.
- 0:00 — Bergdorf Goodman — open store recordMap 754 Fifth Avenue at 58th
Begin at altitude — nine floors on the Vanderbilt plot; ride to 7 for the home floor, descend like a slow avalanche. - 0:45 — Paul Stuart — open store recordMap Madison Avenue at 45th
Down Madison: Ivy’s wittier cousin since 1938 — ask for Phineas Cole if feeling brave. - 1:10 — J. Press — open store recordMap Midtown East
The Yale outfitter, 1902 — shaggy Shetlands and the flap-pocket oxford that built a century of campuses. - 1:45 — C.O. Bigelow — open store recordMap 414 Sixth Avenue, Greenwich Village
Subway to the Village: America’s oldest apothecary — gaslight fixtures, Twain’s prescriptions on file. - 2:15 — Leffot — open store recordMap 10 Christopher Street
Around the corner: one tiny perfect room of Edward Green and Corthay — the shoe pilgrimage, concluded. - 2:45 — Blue in Green — open store recordMap 8 Greene Street, SoHo
Walk south into the cast-iron blocks: Japanese selvedge wall to wall, the hemming machine humming in back. - 3:20 — The Armoury — open store recordMap 168 Duane Street, Tribeca
Finale in Tribeca — Mark Cho’s salon where Neapolitan, Florentine and Japanese tailoring shake hands over coffee.
Aïmé Leon Dore’s café queue, Kith’s cereal bar, and Dover Street Market on Lexington reward remaining stamina; Russ & Daughters’ lox and the Strand’s eighteen miles of books are the other New York, one bridge of appetite away.