• Piperlime

  121 Wooster St., nr. Prince St.; 212-343-4284

  While online upstarts like Bonobos, Warby Parker, and Etsy have successfully experimented with pop-up and permanent spaces, this Gap-owned e-department store transcends its retail forebears by changing the format: Across 4,000 lime-painted square feet, all of the merchandise is organized by trend—Girl on a Budget, for instance, or First Look at Spring—rather than by brand. That makes shopping it more democratic (not to mention fun) than your average Soho stroll, as impulse-buy separates by Vince, Rebecca Minkoff, and Tibi are merchandised alongside their more affordable, lesser-known sister brands. Shoes are separate, but there are hundreds to choose from.

From the 2013 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine