Top shopping neighborhoods in New York City

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The East Village: The East Village personifies bohemian hip. The easiest subway access is the 6 train to Astor Place, which lets you right out at Astor Wines & Spirits; from here, it's just a couple blocks east to the prime hunting grounds.

East 9th Street between Second Avenue and Avenue A is lined with an increasingly smart collection of boutiques, proof that the East Village isn't just for kids anymore. Designers, including Jill Anderson and Huminska, sell excellent-quality and original fashions for women along here.

If it's strange, illegal, or funky, it's probably available on St. Marks Place, which takes over for 8th Street, running east from Third Avenue to Avenue A. This strip is a permanent street market, with countless T-shirt and boho jewelry stands. The height of the action is between Second and Third avenues, which is prime hunting grounds for used-record collectors.

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Lafayette Street From Soho to Noho: Lafayette Street has a retail character all its own, distinct from the rest of SoHo. It has grown into something of an Antiques Row, especially strong in mid-century furniture. Prices are high, but so is quality. The stretch to stroll is between 8th Street to the north and Spring Street to the south. Either take the 6 train to Astor Place and work your way south, get off at Spring Street and walk north, or take the F or V to Broadway-Lafayette and get dropped off in the heart of the action. Highlights include Guéridon, at no. 359, between Bleecker and Bond streets (tel. 212/677-7740; www.gueridon.com), for sophisticated 20th-century European pieces, mainly French, plus some original designs in the same vein.

Dispersed among the furniture and design stores are a number of clothiers, including Ghost (28 Bond St.; tel. 646-602-2891), featuring upscale bohemian designs for women -- no girl stuff, thank you very much.

Greenwich Village: The West Village is great for browsing and gift shopping. Specialty bookstores and record stores, antiques and crafts shops, and gourmet food markets dominate. On 8th Street -- NYU territory between Broadway and Sixth Avenue -- you can find trendy footwear and affordable fashions.

But the biggest shopping boom of late has happened on Bleecker Street west of Sixth Avenue. Between Carmine Street and Seventh Avenue, foodies will delight in the strip of boutique food shops, including Amy's Bread, Wild Edibles, and Murray's Cheese (in a large new space). In between are record stores, guitar shops, and a sprinkling of artsy boutiques. Past narrow Christopher Street, the center of gay Village life, Bleecker becomes boutique alley, where one jewel box of a shop follows still another. Among them: Intermix, Olive & Bette, Ralph Lauren, Lulu Guinness, and Marc Jacobs.

Those who really love to browse should also wander west of Seventh Avenue and along Hudson Street, where charming shops like House of Cards and Curiosities, 23 Eighth Ave., between Jane and 12th streets (tel. 212/675-6178), the Village's own funky take on an old-fashioned nickel-and-dime, are tucked among the brownstones.

Chelsea/Meat-Packing District: Almost overnight, it seems, West Chelsea has been transformed into the Chelsea Art District, where more than 200 galleries have sprouted up in a once-moribund enclave of repair shops and warehouses. The district unofficially stretches from 14th to 29th streets and the West Side Highway and Seventh Avenue, but the high-density area lies between 20th and 26th streets between Tenth and Eleventh avenues.

The Meat-Packing District has also zoomed from quaint to hot (and some say over) in no time, with such big-name designers as Stella McCartney (429 W. 14th St.; tel. 212/929-7180), Christian Louboutin (59 Horatio St.; tel. 212/255-1910), and Alexander McQueen (417 W. 14th St.; tel. 212/645-1797) in residence. Jeffrey New York, an offshoot of the Atlanta department store, has pricey designer clothes, an amazing shoe collection, and the friendliest staff in New York.

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Union Square/The Flatiron District: The hottest shopping/eating/hanging-out neighborhood in the city may be Union Square. The long-forlorn south side of the square is now a mega shopping area with Whole Foods, Filene's Basement, and DSW (Designer Shoe Warehouse). Just to the right is a Virgin Megastore. On the north side of the park, Barnes & Noble is situated in a beautifully restored 1880 cast-iron building. Of course, the beating heart of Union Square is the 4-days-a-week Greenmarket, the biggest farmer's market in the city.

On Broadway, just a few blocks north of Union Square, is the amazing shopping emporium ABC Carpet & Home, where the loft-size floors hold brilliantly decadent displays of furniture, housewares, linens (thread counts off the charts), and tchotchkes of all size and shape.

Upscale retailers who have rediscovered the architectural majesty of lower Fifth Avenue include Banana Republic, Victoria's Secret, and Kenneth Cole. You won't find much that's new along here, but it's a pleasing stretch nonetheless.

When 23rd Street was the epitome of New York uptown fashion more than 100 years ago, the major department stores stretched along Sixth Avenue for about a mile from 14th Street up. These elegant stores stood in huge cast-iron buildings that were long ago abandoned and left to rust. In the last several years, however, the area has become the city's discount shopping center, with superstores and off-pricers filling up the renovated spaces: Filene's Basement, TJ Maxx, and Bed Bath & Beyond are all at 620 Sixth Ave., while Old Navy is next door, and Barnes & Noble is just a couple of blocks away at Sixth Avenue near 22nd Street.

CONTINUED : MIDTOWN

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