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Shopaholics love the City of Brotherly Love for its style—funky artwork and highbrow housewares, fine jewels, and haute couture.
Indeed, Philadelphia has spawned some influential fashion retailers. The Urban Outfitters chain was born in a storefront in West Philadelphia. Its sophisticated sister, Anthropologie, also has its roots in Philadelphia. Lagos, the popular high-end jewelry line, was founded here, and all items are still produced locally. High-fashion boutiques Joan Shepp, Knit Wit, and Elle Lauri, all in the Rittenhouse Square area, are well regarded by locals for designer clothing and accessories.
Some of the most spirited shopping in town is also pleasing to the palate. The indoor Reading Terminal Market and the outdoor Italian Market are bustling with urban dwellers buying groceries and visitors searching for the perfect Philadelphia cheesesteak. Equally welcoming is the city's quaint, cobblestone Antiques Row, the three-block stretch of Pine Street crammed with shops selling everything from estate jewelry to stained glass and vintage furniture. Also worth a trip is the Third Street Corridor in Old City, home to scads of independent, funky boutiques. In Northern Liberties, the Piazza at Schmidt's is a giant mixed-use development inspired by Rome's Piazza Navona, which houses 100,000 square feet of retail space bursting with creative entrepreneurs.
Neighborhoods are presented clockwise starting from the Old City, a commercial waterfront turned arts enclave on the Delaware River, moving south to South Philadelphia, then west to Center City and Rittenhouse Square, across the Schuylkill River to University City around the University of Pennsylvania campus, and ending in the north with Northern Liberties.
Shop-'til-you-droppers make a beeline for Rittenhouse Row, the area between Broad and 21st streets and Spruce and Market streets. Lately the chains have been taking over Walnut Street between Rittenhouse Square and Broad Street, but this is still the greatest concentration of swanky stores and tony boutiques, art galleries, and jewelers you'll find in the city.
In the early 1900s, 4th Street, today's Fabric Row, was teeming with pushcarts selling calico, notions, and trimming, and was known as "der Ferder" or "the Fourth" in Yiddish. Today several century-old fabric stores still stand, like stalwarts Maxie's Daughter and Fleishman Fabrics and Supplies, but many of the storefronts are home to locals selling wares from European-label shoes to fair-trade coffee. There's also a resurgent restaurant scene.
If you want local color, nothing compares with South Philadelphia's Italian Market. On both sides of 9th Street from Christian Street to Washington Avenue and spilling out onto the surrounding blocks, hundreds of outdoor stalls and indoor stores sell spices, cheeses, pastas, fruits, vegetables, and freshly slaughtered poultry and beef, not to mention household items, clothing, shoes, and other goods. It's crowded and filled with the aromas of everything from fresh garlic to imported salami. The vendors can be less than hospitable, but the food is fresh and the prices are reasonable. Food shops include Grassia's Spice Company, Di Bruno Brothers House of Cheese, Claudio's, and Talluto's Authentic Italian Foods. Fante's is well known for cookware. The market's hours are Tuesday–Saturday 9–5:30; some vendors open earlier, and others close around 3:30. Some shops are open Sundays and even Mondays as new vendors expand the markets. It's best to call ahead to specific shops and check.
At 16th and Chestnut streets is the upscale Shops at Liberty Place. The complex features a food court and popular stores, including Loft, Aveda, Victoria's Secret, Express, J. Crew, and the Body Shop. More than 40 stores and restaurants are arranged in two circular levels within a strikingly handsome 90-foot glass-roof atrium.
For some of the most entertaining people-watching in the city, head to South Street, just south of Society Hill. Pierced and tattooed teens vie for space with moms wheeling strollers on this bustling strip from Front Street near the Delaware River to 9th Street. More than 300 unusual stores—high-fashion clothing, New Age books, music and health food, avant-garde art galleries, and 100 restaurants—line the area. Most shops are open in the evening. You can find a few of the national chains, but 95% of the stores are locally owned, selling things you won't find in the mall back home.
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