Fifth Avenue
Historic shopping street in New York, for the elegant fashions of times past and for more current and trendy fashions today. Since the early 1900s, it has symbolized opulence and wealth and been a synonym for consumerism. From 50th to 59th Street, the most prestigious names in fashion and the most elegant department stores in town follow one after another, from Bergdorf Goodman to Sak’s Fifth Avenue, and from Felissimo to Takashimaya and Henri Bendel. The corner at 57th Street has been called “the center of the world.” In Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Audrey Hepburn sips coffee at dawn while strolling down Fifth Avenue and stops to admire the shop windows of one of the most famous jewelers, Tiffany. A few steps away from the jeweler who made his fortune forging swords and medals for the War of Independence, there are also jewels by Cartier, Bulgari, and Harry Winston. In the last ten years, it has become obligatory for everyone, from great designers such as Versace, Prada, and Fendi to new ones such as Paul Smith, from great business names such as Banana Republic to Levi’s, to appear on this New York corner, next to historic brands like Chanel, Hermès, Burberry’s, Gucci, and Christian Dior, who first gave birth to the myth of Fifth Avenue.