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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.
Loop is a knitting store stocked with supplies including natural fiber, luxury, and hand-dyed yarn in a rainbow of hues artfully arranged in stark-white ceiling-high cubbies, softened by the addition of comfy couches where crafty types can (and do) bond.
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