DownTown

Miss Mannequin, as you may have gathered has little need for sleep. This is especially handy in a city that also never sleeps; for there is so much that must be seen and done.

New York City's vibrant energy, rapid pulse and constantly morphing retail landscape invite me to explore every neighbourhood, cool hunting out little tidbits of style for you, dear reader.

You may think I'm an uptown girl, but you'd be wrong to pigeonhole me so quickly. DownTown, remains for me the most rewarding part of Manhattan where boundaries are pushed ever outwards and streets appropriated one by one into the marvellous theatre that is New York. I would not even be offended to be labelled bridge and tunnel these days, for DUMBO, Williamsburg, Cobble Hill and many more "villages" quicken to pulse and please the eye as much as any polished area on Manhattan Island itself.

Billy Reid

Anthropologie

Partners and Spade

Miss Mannequin took little hikes between coffee bar and teashop, soaking up new retail views and seeking out the unusual. I also saw a number of great exhibitions: Richard Serra drawings at the MET, Lynda Benglis's glitter encrusted shapes dripping from the Walls of the New Museum and Ren Koolhaus's Chronocaos exhibit in the Bowery, which turned vintage on it's head pondering the question, at what point does authenticity meet gentrification: one mans renovation is another mans preservation I guess!

All Saints

Kiosk

My brief trip revealed that MEATPACKER powers ever on, populating it's cobbled streets with store after store of upwardly mobile brands and concepts. Miss Mannequin applauded the windows at Anthropologie - a sensational tribute to cork! NOLITA continues to have the sweetest little boutiques, cute and girly, with cupcakes and flat whites on virtually every corner. NOHO is acquiring some great new spaces, mixed retail concepts and the stores with edgier labels (all this makes for fabulous and creative presentation). The BOWERY resonates with gritty energy, arty installations and long walks to secure small nuggets of edginess. The LOWER EAST SIDE never misses...defiantly exciting the senses with unique concept stores and newbie brands galore, whilst away off the island...WILLIAMSBURG's gentle low rise laid back hipster style enthrals and intrigues you all at once.

John Varvartos at CBGB's

Bag 

Long may the edgier areas survive and prosper, each bringing unique flavour to the bland mainstream and genuinely creative thought to fashion, retail and in my case visual presentation....NEW YORK, I salute you.

Bedford Cheese Shop

McNally's Book Store