Shopping in The South
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Bill Hallman
Atlantans love to shop. Virginia-Highland has a unique selection of boutique shops, including the supremely fashionable Bill Hallman which clothes lads and lasses alike. Find vintage and secondhand threads in Little Five Points or at the smartly stocked Lucky Exchange. The teeny East Atlanta boutique Rare Footage sells limited edition sneakers.
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Johnny Donnels
The gallery of a fine local photographer, whose work turns up in galleries, museums and publications across the country. The collection is anchored by some touchingly beautiful shots of the French Quarter, as well as revealing portraits of musicians and people in New Orleans. Donnels has a fine eye, and he's been shooting New Orleans for years.
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Pied Nu
If you need a hand-poured candle that lasts 60 hours, try one of the sweet-smelling Diptyques on sale here. As you soak up that vanilla-scented goodness, browse through elephant-printed cotton T-shirt dresses, cinched poet dresses and low-joe sneakers. Set it off with tiny leaf earrings and you’re almost as endearing as this precious boutique.
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Gargoyle's
At times in New Orleans it seems there must be a Gothic convention in town, so great is the concentration of guys and dolls in black from head to toenail. If you're looking a little too cheery for such company, you can always swing by this little shop for some sinister boots and black garb. You'll be welcomed into the coven with open arms.
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Hové Parfumeur
Grassy vetiver, bittersweet orange blossom, spicy ginger…New Orleans’ exotic floras have graciously lent their scents to Hové’s house-made perfumes for over 70 years. A brief sniffing visit will leave your head swirling with images of the Vieux Carré’s magnificent past. Thus intoxicated, you can ask staff to custom-mix a fragrance for you.
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Il Negozio
You might be fed up with closet-sized boutiques with a selection of three dresses all in size zero, but you needn't avoid this stylish store. It's a large old house, converted into a large store, with a lush garden out front. The merchandise includes an assortment of dresses, skirts, pants and blouses by European and American designers.
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Aidan Gill for Men
Welcome to the metrosexual headquarters of Orleans Parish. It’s all about looking stylish, in a well-heeled, masculine sort of way. High-end shaving gear, smart cufflinks and colorful silk ties are sold in front, and there’s a popular barber shop ($35 for a trim, $40 for a shave; reserve a week ahead) out back.
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Unclaimed Baggage Center
East of Huntsville in Scottsboro, you'll find the infamous Unclaimed Baggage Center that draws pilgrims from far and wide who peruse the now-for-sale belongings of unfortunate air travelers who have lost their baggage irrevocably down the dark annals of fate. Sucks for them, fabulous deals for you.
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Belladonna Day Spa
After a few hard days of getting stuffed with rich Creole food and sloshed on gallons of Abita, it’s time to treat yourself to a little cleansing experience at Belladonna. When you’re done cleansing and spoiling yourself, take home some hip homewares and cleansing products so you can engage in some homegrown renewal.
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Shoefty
Shoe stores tend to be aimed at women, and there’s no doubt girls will be in footwear heaven here amid the strappy, the pump-y, the chunky and the tottering heel-y. But metrosexual men (or dragged-along boyfriends) will also find cool kicks that may convince some of us that it’s acceptable to own more than one pair of sneakers.
reviewed
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The Collection
The little gift shop at the Historic New Orleans Collection has a quality selection of new and used books on the region's history, politics, art and architecture. There's also a small selection of art reproductions from the Historic Collection's impressive archive. This is also a good spot to pick up some classy postcards.
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Sword & Pen
Military memorabilia nerds, rejoice. There are armies of miniature soldiers here marching past Confederate kitsch, WWII posters, recruitment buttons from every conflict of the 20th century (apparently) and anything else that could fulfill a little kid, or grown travel writer’s, most lurid toy-soldier fantasies.
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Kaboom Books
In the far reaches of the lower Quarter, Kaboom is a great book store to visit for its large and varied collection. Prices are often well below what you would expect, and the paperback shelves are packed with thousands of classics and mysteries and recent best sellers. You'll find something to read here, for sure.
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Simon of New Orleans
Local artist Simon Hardeveld has made a name for himself by painting groovy signs that are hung like artwork in restaurants all over New Orleans; you’ll probably recognize the distinctive stars, dots and sparkles. Out back, a tabletop box contains hand-painted Zulu coconuts – collectors’ items in these parts.
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Hazelnut
It’s hard to be a cool Uptowner if you haven’t brought home some of the gilded glassware, post-modern ceramic, classically cool toile, gorgeous tableau that looks like it should decorate a fairy-tale palace, or other interior-decor must-haves that overflow Hazelnut’s showroom.
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Anton Haardt Gallery
Among the finest galleries to specialize in contemporary folk art from the Deep South features well-known artists like Howard Finster and Clementine Hunter, but you’re more likely to come across Lamar Sorrento’s cool portraits of blues musicians or Jimmy Lee Sudduth’s striking earth-tone figures.
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Photo Works
This is a polished showroom for the accomplished photographer Louis Sahuc ( sigh -ook), who has been shooting New Orleans for years and years. Sahuc’s beautiful prints capture timeless images of the city. They are vantages upon which even Hurricane Katrina failed to impose change.
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Dark Room
New Orleans is photogenic, and home to hundreds of photographers, so it stands to reason there would be a place to get some very high-quality print work done. Dark Room is a center for the photographic arts, and you can take classes in photography and printing too, if you’re interested.
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New Orleans Glasswork & Printmaking Studios
In an immense 25,000ft brick building, New Orleans Glasswork & Printmaking Studios is a combination studio and gallery space primarily for glassblowers and stained-glass artisans. Not only can you admire and purchase works here, you can watch artists blow glass, which is pretty impressive.
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Save NOLA
The Save NOLA store, located inside the Jackson Brewery, sells handbags, souvenirs, shirts and such; proceeds go towards the group of the same name and are invested in community rebuilding projects like Habitat for Humanity. The sort of store where your need for retail therapy is a good deed.
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Sucré
Sucre sells the sort of chocolate you’d think was hidden behind secret government titanium vaults – dollops of single espresso beans encased in bittersweet darkness like a silk kiss and all that other food porn adjective-heavy verbiage. Some of Sucré’s 21-piece boxes run to as much as $68.
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Tabasco Country Store
Bet you thought Tabasco was either red or green and always hot, right? Guess again: there’s Tabasco ketchup, mayonnaise, cookbooks, plenty of souvenirs and a fairly incredible range of hot (and not so hot) sauces. Don’t you need a 500-count pack of mini-Tabasco bottles?
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Trashy Diva
Diva’s specialty is sassy 1940s- and ’50s-style cinched, hourglass dresses and belle epoque undergarments – lots of corsets and lacy, frilly stuff for the look of the Suicide Girl of yesteryear, plus retro tops, skirts and shawls reflecting styles plucked from just about every era.
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Miss Claudia's
This shop will serve as your wardrobe department if the look you're after is straight out of Matt Helm movies or 77 Sunset Strip. Try on some old suits, ties, striped shirts, knee-high boots, fake fur coats and short skirts, whip out the credit card and shimmy on down Magazine St.
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Retroactive
Once you’ve ducked in through the vintage handbags and crazy hats that literally hang from the ceiling, slow down a bit to inspect the jaw-dropping selection of costume jewelry. Beautiful glass and Bakelite pieces plucked from the mid-20th century cost anywhere from $20 to $500.
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