We pick the best New York bases for serious shoppers.
Sixty Soho, Rooms from £150
Formerly known as 60 Thompson, this 97-room boutique hotel comes with a pretty unbeatable SoHo address, plus a beyond-trendy Thai restaurant and a legendary roof terrace that is (bonus) only open to guests.
Get your walking (aka shopping) shoes on, venture through lower Manhattan to NoLita style mecca Creatures of Comfort, the NYC outpost of the original LA boutique famed for showcasing up-and-coming designers from near and far. This is 2,300 square feet of designware, cutting-edge fashion (Rachel Comey, Tom Scott, Michelle Lane) plus one-off accessories sourced from Morocco. You're just a short walk from Le Labo fragrance store, where wafts of Santal 33 (Chloe Sevigny's favourite perfume) will revive you if you're flagging. And another fifteen minutes takes you to Bleecker St, home to the Marc Jacobs outlet store and the brand new Marc Jacobs Beauty store at number 385.
The London NYC, Rooms from £150
With sleek, masculine interiors and a buzzy Gordon Ramsay restaurant, The London offers one of the best addresses in Manhattan - with none of the formality and fuss of neighbouring grande dame hotels.
Get a fast design fix by heading to the MoMA Design Store five minutes down the road. (Okay, you could also visit the actual gallery but you won't be able to afford to buy any of the cool stuff on the walls there. BORING.) Refuel at the legendary Carnegie Deli, a real Midtown landmark on 7th Avenue at 55th Street. Then hit up Barneys, a fifteen-minute walk from the hotel. See, we told you this was a dangerous location.
The Jane, Rooms from £60
Affordable, bohemian and a trendy West Village location has made this a firm favourite amongst visiting fashion editors and young creatives - all just a few blocks from Sarah Jessica Parker's brownstone. Make a pilgrimage (just a ten-minute pilgrimage, don't stress) to cult jeweller Alexis Bittar's beautiful store, and buy a cocktail ring to remind you of all the cocktails you drank on the rooftop last night. Bittar started out selling his statement pieces from a Soho street stall; now he has three boutiques in the city. Then trot on to Darling, a mind-blowing vintage/independent clothing boutique established by a former theatrical costume designer and now owned by two young fashion designers. Don't forget to swing by Rag & Bone, the original Brit-owned, NYC-honed fashion label, that does seriously good investment pieces like coats and tailoring.
The James SoHo, Rooms from £200
Just up the road from Sixty Soho, this seriously stylish, light-filled and contemporary urban retreat in Lower Manhattan swiftly became a favourite hangout with the opening of Jimmy, their buzzy rooftop bar with amazing 360-degree views of Manhattan.
You're conveniently just around the corner from the Opening Ceremony showroom, which houses an impeccably-curated collection of international labels as well as a their AH-mazing private label collection. Then go for a restorative flat white at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, a ten-minute stroll from the hotel. All proceeds from your coffee, wine or that load of books you buy will help homeless people living with HIV/AIDS, and it's a great place to get a feel for the neighbourhood.
Mccarren Hotel & Pool, Rooms from £160
Vintage queens, welcome home. Ignore the slightly meh facade - this lovely new hotel has fast become a neighbourhood favourite; think Hipster Central. There's a Michelin-starred chef in the kitchen, you're minutes from the Williamsburg waterfront, and you get better views of Manhattan than Manhattan does. Bedford Avenue is the main shoppiing/eating drag, but just get yourself lost in the streets of Williamsburg and you'll come across retro treasure troves like 10 ft Single by Stella Dallas and Tiger Blanket Records. Yep, every store or cafe in Williamsburg has a lengthy and baffling name, get used to it. At the weekend make for Artists & Fleas, a revolving collection of local artists, jewellers and craftspeople; expect to lose hours here.
Tribeca Grand, Rooms from £188
Nobody goes to NYC expecting a huge hotel room, but the newly revamped Grand makes the space work hard, with modernist furniture and retro prints. Malin + Goetz bathroom goodies are the cherry on top of a super-stylish room. And with the shops waiting, you're not going to spend that much time in your room. First, hit up the impeccably-curated boutique Steven Alan which stocks Rag + Bone, Band of Outsiders and Engineered Garments, then wander around the beguiling Mysterious Bookshop, an atmospheric mecca for crime fiction lovers.
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