Center’s Shops Are High-Class

The shops at the World Financial Center, lower Manhattan’s new soaring granite and reflective glass office towers, offer high-class merchandise in an elegant setting.

Designed by Cesar Pelli and Associates and opened last October, the center has a spacious, peaceful and calm environment.

The complex’s hub is the Winter Garden, a 120-foot-high, vaulted-steel-and-glass enclosed courtyard, flanked by handsome shops. Additional boutiques line marble-floored corridors and lobbies on the ground and second levels. And most shops have magnificent views of the Hudson River.

The shop roster includes Ann Taylor, Mark Cross, Caswell-Massey, Bree and Bally, plus nationwide retailers and locals.

Barneys New York, a leading clothier, offers men’s clothes. Conservatively-styled business suits from Armani, Ferre, Zegna, Grieves and Hawkes, H. Huntsman & Sons, Ralph Lauren, Hickey Freeman and other labels cost from $495 to $1,200. Custom-made suits are 20% more. Madras cotton ties are $13, conservative silk ties $22 and up.

There are sporty cotton-and-linen blend sweaters for $105 and handsome Baker-Benjes tasseled loafers for $185. Rainwear ranges from Burberry’s tan trench coats ($495) to Carol When’s yellow slickers ($375). In addition, there are leather attache cases and wallets, beautiful cuff links and other accessories.

Nautical Theme

Northshore on the Hudson features private-label men’s and women’s casual clothing, often with a nautical theme. Cotton sweaters in colors are $80 and up, plaid shirts ($35) and shorts ($45) and cotton knit shirts ($48). Men’s navy blazers are $280. Women’s nautical-style suits with gold braid are about $500, soft terry robes $85 and patterned sweat shirts $110.

Sports shorts ($18) are worn by men as underwear or by women as summertime sporting attire. The shop also sells items from inflatable rafts ($1,500) to antique model ships ($700 and up), plus waterproof wallets ($22), papier-mache penguins ($25) and framed John Stobart nautical prints ($800 and up). Northshore has its own credit card that entitles bearers to special sales, such as 20% off anything plaid.

Cignal has chic, trendy and moderately priced men’s and women’s clothing. Labels include Byblos, Girbaud, Matinique, Mexx and Willi Wear for men, and Bonnie Strauss, Leon Max, Tina Hagen, Nina K and East Wind Code for women. Joe Da Hun’s high rayon trousers ($95), with a button-down waist and matching waiter’s jacket, are popular with men and women, as is Shanghai’s rayon overcoat ($200) in brown, gray and black.

Ports International’s line of career women’s attire is all mix-and-match for convenience. Versatile shift dresses cost $115, pleated knit skirts $95, trousers $70, cotton knit shirts with V or crew necks $45 in an array of pinks and greens, plaids and polka dots. There are belts, bags and other coordinated accessories.

Tahari has women’s silk and linen blend skirt or pantsuits (about $450) in purple and other spiffy colors, as well as classical double-breasted coat dresses ($268). Also hats, including an appealing wide-brim straw bonnet with red-and-white-striped lining and red polka-dot band ($125), and a matching rectangular scarf ($14).

Legs Beautiful sells its own hosiery ($2.50 and up) in a variety of colors and styles, as well as stockings by Hanes, Donna Karan, Givenchy and DIM. When you buy a dozen pairs, the 13th pair is free.

Special Services

Foot Authority combines shoe sales and foot care. Stock includes Avia, New Balance and Rockport shoes for sports and walking, as well as super-comfortable ladies’ patent leather pumps and low-heeled tuxedo shoes, and men’s oxfords and loafers for business. Prices about $50 and up, but services are special.

Customers’ gaits are analyzed free by trained kinesthesiologists, who, using a treadmill and video camera, explain how various types of shoes affect the biomechanics of walking. Exercises may be suggested. In addition, foot-care lotions and custom-made orthotics cost $350 to $500, and a podiatrist sees customers on Tuesdays.

Offermann offers accessories, including attache cases, travel bags, wallets and handbags made of rugged, mat-finish water buffalo hide or smooth, shiny high-quality cowhide.

Water buffalo briefcases cost about $560, high-quality cowhide briefcases about $670. Water buffalo carry-on bags with one hanger are $820, passport wallets with multiple pockets for credit cards and cash cost $135 and handsome agendas are $195. Most items are available only in black.

Historical Mementos

Gallery of History, a branch of the Las Vegas-based American Museum of Historical Documents, sells original autographs, letters and signed photos of famous historic personages. The documents are authenticated and beautifully framed.

Prices under $1,000 to more than $1 million. Most expensive is a paper by Albert Einstein, handwritten in 1895 when the physicist was 16 years old, foreshadowing the theory of relativity. Eleanor Roosevelt’s 1942 letter to a young soldier whom she had not met sells for $1,295.

Space enthusiasts will find a set of signed photos by John Glenn and Vladimir Titov, the Soviet astronaut, selling for $1,995, while Christa McAuliffe’s autograph and photo is $3,795. A $1,000 bank check endorsed by former Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne sells for $3,995, and John Hancock’s John Hancock costs $6,995.

State of the Art has high-tech personal accessories and gift items, including colorful plastic outdoor showers that attach to garden hoses ($50), Quadriletteral asymmetric stationery ($10 for eight cards), iodized copper platters ($48), battery-operated shoeshine kits ($25) and candle holders made of stacked blocks of glass ($60 each), as well as Relax Man ($600), a personal sound-and-light system (with goggles and earphones) developed by Synchro Energize to assist in meditation and relaxation.

Perl Photo Electronics will match or beat prices offered by discount shops (including 47th Street Photo and Crazy Eddie). For example, Perl sells Sharp Wizards for $229, Sony Discman players for $169 (with AM-FM radio for $229) and Sharp 19-inch color TVs with remote control for $269. Little telephones shaped like sports cars cost $15 and those shaped like Ferraris cost $49.

CD Street (lobby level) discounts Top-20 compact discs by $4 and other compact discs by $2. The store stocks about 4,000 titles. Nine listening stations enable customers to listen to discs before buying them. Owners will special-order and ship discs anywhere for customers.

Il Papiro’s Italian marbleized paper items include notebooks ($14 to $98), portfolios with leather bindings ($86 and up), masks ($89), small crescent- or heart-shaped boxes ($12 and up), pencil cups ($16), ink blotters ($49) and picture frames ($20 and up).

Animal Drawings

Paper Boutique sells greeting cards for all occasions, plus unusual paper chess sets (about $40), animal sculptures called Arkipets ($15 for a menagerie) and flower vases (four for $25). Also paper half-moons ($7 and up) or heart-shaped ($13) boxes in silver, copper or black, as well as stationery (20 cents per sheet) with drawings of Dalmatians, cougars and tropical fish.

For more information, call (212) 945-0505 or write to Olympia & York, 1 World Financial Center, 200 Liberty St., 18th Floor, New York 10281.