Shopping in Greenwich Village: The best stores and boutiques

The PPB's main focus is on couples looking to invigorate their sex lives with props, potions or costumes. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and the store carries a huge number of toys, starting with cheap bullet vibes and topping out with $100-plus extreme dildos. The company's been in business since 1972, which makes Pink Pussycat a trusted name for dommes and submissives alike.

You’ll be transported to Paris once you step inside this opulent bath-and-body shop. Rich burgundy carpets, gilded wallpaper, a gloriously huge chandelier and a mahogany desk that serves as the checkout area set the stage for the luxurious fragrances ($50–$300), candles ($20–$400), lotions, and soaps from brands like Diptyque and Annick Goutal. Curiosity cabinets house many of the store’s exclusives—the West Village outpost is the only location in the country to sell several items, including candles by Les Secrets Ladurée Paris.  

Designer Marc Jacobs’s West Village empire continues to expand with the opening of this high-fashion bookstore, which has replaced the beloved Biography Book Shop. Though Biography’s blond-wood shelving remains, its memoirs have been replaced with coffee-table tomes, such as House of Versace ($26), artist Dawn Mellor’s namesake book depicting nightmarish renditions of pop icons ($35) and shutterbug Mario Testino’s photographic ode to muse Kate Moss ($700). It’s not all glossy photos, though: Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl ($25) leans against a dishy book about Hollywood scandals ($25). There are also Marc Jacobs–branded souvenirs galore, including condoms packaged in matchbooks ($2), broken-heart compacts ($5), USB cassette tapes ($15), lipstick-shaped pens ($4) and canvas Bookmarc totes emblazoned with a pixelated lightbulb ($20)—perhaps the only MJ handbag that falls within your budget.

This stationery store—with exposed brick, cheerful floral wallpaper and a pink overhanging lamp—exudes West Village charm. It’s owned by sisters Amy Swanson and Beth Salvini, whose family has been in the printing biz for three generations, and nearly everything is designed in-house and produced on an old Gutenberg-style press. Aside from note cards and stationery, GLP also offers notebooks, rubber stamps, labels, gift tags and striking wrapping paper ($3–$5 a sheet).

In operation since 1965, this friendly West Village institution sells all manner of fetish attire, as well as books, sex toys, magazines and plenty more.

When Insoek Paek opened this luggage, handbag and travel accessories store in 1989, he wanted to create a neighborhood shop with a European feel. He’s done exactly that by stocking the neatly organized bag emporium with international brands such as Upla and Jack Gomme from France, and Italian line Mywalit. Paek draws on his hospitality experience from stints at South Korean hotels, chatting up customers to recommend items and personally delivering purchases throughout Manhattan for free. Last-minute types who always find themselves running to the gate should invest in Tumi rolling carry-ons ($395) or Samsonite hard-side bags with rotating wheels ($189) for quicker sprints. Cover and safeguard your suitcases with clear Luggage Protect bags ($30) or guard your hands from blisters with Lewis N. Clark Belle Hop cushioned handle wraps ($15).

Guilt-free shopping surfaces in the West Village with this nonprofit thrift shop’s second store (the original is in Gramercy). Both donate all proceeds to the United Jewish Council of the East Side (ujces.org), which works to preserve the Lower East Side community. Sift through men’s and women’s clothing ($30–$600) hanging from reclaimed pipe racks, and browse accessories ($15–$400) displayed in an original Tiffany jewelry case. We spotted accessories such as Versace ($60) and Pucci ($80) neckties, Fendi leather handbags ($95) and Givenchy platforms ($100). The threads pack the same designer punch, with 1990s Betsey Johnson grunge dresses ($120) and a ’70s Yves Saint Laurent patterned blouse ($175). An Etro military jacket ($165) and vintage Nick Cave concert tee ($65) are highlights for guys.

This West Village smoke shop has products at every price for every type of smoker—there are glass pipes and rolling papers and hookahs and flavored tobacco and grinders and vaporizers (and more). Also, the people who work here are knowledgable and helpful about the vast inventory without being pushy, a rarity in smoke shops.

Owner Joshua Suzanne Ethier began her career in what she calls “the rag business” as the manager of now-defunct Alice Underground, and it’s clear she takes pride in her chosen field: Ethier hand-selects her merchandise directly from textile houses, wholesalers and warehouses for a mix of unworn dead stock and well-preserved secondhand goods. Unlike most of the city’s cluttered thrift stores, items are meticulously organized by clothing type (oxford shoes on one shelf, flannels on another) in a color-coded rainbow, making sifting through the men’s and women’s garb here a breeze. What’s more, like items are all priced the same, with logo tees marked $18 each or two for $30, Levi’s jeans and denim jackets tagged $35 and cut-off shorts costing a mere $10 to $20. Urban cowboys, take note: the store is known for its killer selection of cowboy boots ($65) and other Western apparel (hello, fringe!).

This vintage mecca has been peddling men’s and women’s clothing and accessories since 1978, serving clientele as diverse as Alexa Chung, Marc Jacobs and Cyndi Lauper. Owner Laura Wills travels the world, scouting eclectic finds that span the 1950s to the 1990s, and organizes clothing racks by decade. Do you need sunglasses from the ’70s? How about a royal-wedding T-shirt from the 1980s? Head upstairs to check out higher-end specialty garments like men’s Moschino printed suit jackets ($595) and Hattie Carnegie satin cap-sleeve dresses with beading ($895). The boutique is transformed into a Halloween showcase for the month of October, and since the staff is made up almost entirely of stylists, it's a great place to put together a complete period look, including the era-appropriate wigs and accessories.