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New York City has more stores than anyone could physically tackle, but somehow we always keep returning to the usual suspects. To break out of the rut, we've asked some local shopping and fashion gurus to provide their hidden retail gems—those unique stores around our fantastic city that we might not all know about. Cue the Beatles: We're about to get a little help from our friends.
Image via LEO Design
Andrew B. Stewart is a graduate of "Polo University." After more than six years on Ralph Lauren's Retail Presentation and Creative Services teams, he created his own venture called Red Cap Productions Inc—a creative service that specializes in property staging, home and fashion styling, product development, red carpet management, and special events. Here, Stewart shows us where he gets lost for hours and hours on Hudson Street.
I love to shop. I'm a pro shopper and when I'm looking for something special to gift or for myself I always make a stop at LEO Design in the West Village. It's a warm, elegant shop jam packed with beautiful and refined objects in tight collections. Generally shopping for my business, I buy in pairs or groups of 3-5 of a like assortment, but at LEO Design, I value the serene moments of exploring their world for uniquely exquisite items and taking each one home in bliss.
Specializing in what the owner refers to as "handsome gifts," the selection's aesthetic sense begins in the Arts and Crafts movement and then plays with late Victorian, Gothic Revival, Art Deco, and a bit of Modernism mixed in. I can find myself entranced on their window that's filled to the brink with copper vessels and artfully crafted wood boxes. The antiques for sale inside, with their warm glowing surfaces, play host to a myriad of sculptures, fine silver, photo frames, vintage bookends, desk appointments, ceramic wonderlands, and iron keepsakes. They also have a large offering of exceptional cufflinks that satisfy my undeniable attraction to shiny things.
· LEO Design [Official Site]
· Red Cap Productions [Official Site]
· All Shopping Confidential Posts [Racked NY]