Where Masters And Mistresses Of The Universe Can Have It All

Not long ago, a shiny, glass-and-metal shopping mall appeared in Lower Manhattan, the kind of thing Manhattan natives (your stopgap Critical Shopper included) longed for in their foolish youths when suburban friends would floss and brag. It is called Brookfield Place, and behind its streak-free panes wait Diane von Furstenberg and J. Crew, Burberry and Bottega Veneta, a Lululemon and a designer gym to wear it in. These are difficult days for the brick-and-mortar retail business, which is fighting against the forces of ease, convenience and Amazon.com, so the arrival of a megamall seems like a strange eruption. But Brookfield, a stone’s throw from the 9/11 Memorial, is closer still to the gleaming office towers that house American Express, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, some of which are accessible from its well-appointed elevator banks. What the good old mall meant to gum-popping high schoolers, this one aims to mean to blue-chip M.B.A.s with budgets to burn. Want to meet at the food court for curly fries at the nerve center of American capitalism? Touching down here is Saks Fifth Avenue, a New York landmark now untethered from its iconic address and off to explore a new New York. It arrived like an 86,000-square-foot emissary from one of the city’s stateliest dowagers. Of course, “downtown” is as much a state of mind as an address. Even stocked with designer labels picked for maximum cool (edgy entrants like Vetements, whose fully unstructured Carhartt work-apron dress will run you $1,210), Saks, with its manicured gleam and full floor of private salons, feels less downtown than Uptown South. Read more at The New York Times.