I have never heard about buying real bags on the street. All the ones that I have seen down there have been fake.

Dont buy any clothes here on the street unless it's from a yard sale, they're almost exclusively fake.

For shopping, you can go ANYWHERE pretty much but there are two major concentrations of shopping and they're both REALLY big. The area bounded by the bowery on the east, broadway on the west, 14th street on the north, and canal on the south houses a HUMUNGOUS amount of shopping: Barneys, 3 diesel stores, j lidheberg, a levis store, lounge, atrium, blue and green, cloak, replay, evisu, bape, APC, puma, bloomingdales, gstar, and about a thousand other places are all within that area.

Fifth avenue from about 42nd to 59th as well as lexington in the same area and all the sidestreets are full of all kinds of really upscale shopping - Dior, D&G, Escada, Saks 5th avenue, barneys, bloomingdales, and all kinds of super expensive little boutiques are in there.

There's lots more but if you're here for a weekend I would just focus on the soho area. Check the superfuture map - it's a little out of date but it shows you the general area involved and how much shopping there is:

superfuture :: new york :: soho :: map
superfuture :: new york :: nolita :: map
superfuture :: new york :: lower east :: map
superfuture :: new york :: west village :: map

There's even some stuff that's not on those maps too...

You will find many many FAKE designer bags and clothing on the street. Anyone who tells you they bought a "real" designer bag on the street is either lying or fooling themselves!

SoHo is fantastic for boutiques, and the Prince St/ Broadway Area has lots of chain stores as well. H&M is great for cheap well-designed clothing. Mango is also good. Intermix and Scoop (also in the SoHo area) are great for smaller designers.

i love zara and mango
if you buy a bag from chinatown on the street, it'll be FAKE and you'll be able to tell.

Blm14 has mentioned the majority of the stores. I would also add Opening Ceremony on Howard & Crosby St. They have a lot of nice independent labels and each year they carry brands other countries. This year is Sweden I believe. Also Paul Smith, Scoop, and Agnes B are nice as well.

The majority of designer handbags & clothings sold on the street are fake so be wary.

i love love zara
SUCH cute clothes there!

sweet. great info.

it has made the blog:
shopping in NYC at Authentic Designer Jeans, Celebs, Deals :: TheDenimBlog.com :: designer denim served daily

props blm14 for great info!

The only way you will get a real bag on the street is if its stolen, which of course they won't tell you either. I know someones brother who got a Rolex for $150, turned out to be real and worth $10k.

Well, how do I know if its real or a fake one??

Ok - all those stories of how people say you can actually get real bags in C-town because they are "off the truck" "stolen" are not true.

What people get are those high end replicas made with real leather and are almost exact. They don't really know bags that well so they will show a friend that "thinks" they know what they are talking about and tell them its real. They then go on to tell everyone that they got an actual $800 bag off the street for $75.

How does it make ANY sense for these people to sell AUTHENTIC items stolen or not at bootleg prices! They would find ways to get closer to a retail price.

Urban Myth - literally

by buying it from the boutique, not the street