Boutique

French term derived from the term for studio or workshop, in long use to indicate a shop in which clothes are bought, with strong and particular attention to fashion. This is especially the case when the fashion houses support the principal lines of the season with others added on, often known as boutique fashion. In the history of Italian fashion, going back to its famous beginning at the Sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti, the term boutique refers to small artisan-made Collections, with simple and colorful pieces, fanciful and universally known as the real ancestors of prêt-à-porter. Today the term boutique primarily indicates a shop for high quality clothing, as well as an exclusive place for the purchase of clothes by great tailors and designers, and for merchandise of famous brands. Starting in the 1950s the number of boutiques multiplied dramatically. Every town, and especially every city, has a street, and sometimes more than one, entirely devoted to prestigious boutiques. The famous ones are via Condotti in Rome, via Montenapoleone, via della Spiga and via Sant’Andrea in Milan, Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue in New York, Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, and, of course, the surrounding neighborhoods.