• Barneys New York

  660 Madison Ave., at 61st St.; 212-826-8900

  The luxury retailer has been luring shoe obsessives for years. But it wasn’t until last summer’s shoe-floor overhaul that resistance proved truly futile. The renovation more than doubled the size of the salon to 22,000 square feet; its new gallery-like layout, a brainchild of Barneys creative director Dennis Freedman and high-end design firm Yabu Pushelberg, showcases exclusives from Narciso Rodriguez and Manolo Blahnik on literal pedestals. Most notably, the atmospherics—mohair-and-velvet seating, Italian marble walls, Macassar ebony tables—offer a shopping experience as chic as the shoes themselves.

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