shopping in palm beach
Cruising on Worth Avenue, Photo By Anna Wolf, June 2006
- Palm Beach Shops
- A strip of highway overflowing with the eccentric castoffs of rich retirees, plus a genteel avenue of refined shops, make this the country's premiere destination for blue-blooded goods both old and new.
- Barzina
- 66 Via Mizner
(561) 833-5834 Each May, the owner of this little shop shutters her doors, travels the world for five months and ships back wonderfully obscure finds: silk hand-painted robes by a Russian countess, Venetian picture frames, super-soft Mongolian cashmere shawls ($400), crochet-edged, waffle-weave cotton napkins ($16 each). Best of all, because there's no middleman, the prices are really reasonable.
- Cashmere Buffalo
- 3709 South Dixie Hwy
(561) 659-5441 Every in-the-know Palm Beacher told us to come here, one of the few uncluttered stops on this strip. Divided into two rooms—one mod, the other antiquey—this is the best place for vintage linens, Rat Pack- era barware, mirrored boudoir pieces and Austin Powers-esque lamps.
- Christa's South Antiques & Seashells
- 3737 South Dixie Hwy
(561) 655-4650 Six years ago, Christa Wilm branched out into the whimsical world of polished-seashell collages, and her clients now include world-class designers, the Ritz-Carlton and, fittingly, Jimmy Buffett. The antique-filled entrance is quietly sophisticated, but in the back room shells run riot over everything from mirrors ($1,800 and up) to candlesticks ($225 and up). A cage with two live parakeets is just about the only thing that escapes beach-ification.
- Circa Who
- 531 Northwood Rd
(561) 655-5224 This new boutique specializes in surprisingly low-priced furniture and playful old-Florida finds. About five miles north of Antique Row, it's well worth the trek (L.A. designers like to shop here) for such scores as a pair of '60s-era wicker throne-chairs with poppy-print cushions ($100).
- D&G Antiques, Inc
- 3234 South Dixie Hwy
(561) 835-0461 Chaos reigns at this multi-dealer spot. The mix of haute and humble goods from various periods is barely arranged but amassed by enlightened pros. Because of the range, prices vary: A recent visit yielded English bone-china teacups for $25 each and an 18th-century French mantel clock for $9,900.
- Dolce Antiques
- 3700 South Dixie Hwy
(561) 832-4550 Designers and Kelly Wearstler acolytes rely on this very, very chic spot for gorgeous sconces, wry curios (anyone for a shaggy life-size llama with crocheted horns?) and big-flair pieces (like an enormous plaster Venus de Milo). The goods usually have provenance and there's not much for less than $500, but the owners are typically South Dixie mellow: just plain excited about their stuff, and glad you are too.
- Erhard Danenberg
- 4900 South Dixie Hwy
(561) 588-7288 A favorite of designer Jonathan Adler, this two-story emporium offers an exciting mélange of French antiques and locally sourced modern and vintage pieces, all arranged in a happy, help-yourself hodgepodge. Co-owner Bruce Erhard, a funny, self-deprecating fellow, takes great pleasure in his wacky finds, like rattan furniture repainted in acid yellows and greens ($150 to $1,200) that screams 1970s Florida.
- Grande Armée
- 256 Worth Ave. (in the Gucci courtyard)
(561) 835-1958 The military relics here began life as owner Jim Muir's personal collection but eventually grew big enough to require a retail outlet. Today decorators and hard-core collectors are drawn to cabinets of uniforms and plumed helmets, resin sphinx statues ($61 per pair) and chess sets modeled on the Third Crusade.
- Harris Kratz
- 3901A South Dixie Hwy
(561) 832-8180 This proper shop is refreshingly well-edited. The pieces are chosen not for their status (though some have it) but for their unique charm— almost any item would make a great starting point for a room. Celerie Kemble recently snapped up a 1950s Italian clock-face table for a client. Bonus: The owners seem to know everything.
- H Groome
- 294 South County Rd
(561) 832-3444 More tropical than its Southampton, NY, sister store, this bright boutique offers a range of cheery finds, including caned Lucite trays ($345 each) and gold-embossed pastel silk cocktail napkins ($12 each). Muriel Brandolini's sorbet-toned dresses are just the thing to wear while lounging in her breezy deck chairs ($595 each).
- Jack Fhillips
- 7 Via Parigi
(561) 659-4452 Fhillips, a popular local designer and compulsive antiquer, hits estate sales and auctions in New England, the West Indies and Europe for his Anglo-Indian-style loot. A recent visit turned up brass campaign tables ($535 each) and pristine brown-and-white transferware, plus Fhillips' own collection of Bahamian screen-printed fabrics. We fell for trimmed Belgian-linen pillows ($325).
- J&M Antiques
- 3714 South Dixie Hwy
(561) 655-0899 The house specialty is 17th- and 18th-century Italian furniture, but mod lamps and mailbox-size clamshells are also on view at this big, slightly gothic spot. Black Forest oddities (tiny mounted antlers, $175) could appear in a Tim Burton movie, while Hollywood Regency seating makes you want to crank up the Dean Martin.
- Kemble Interiors, Inc.
- 294 Hibiscus Ave
(561) 659-5556 On a leafy residential street, in a sunny two-story house that serves as their studio, celebrated designers Celerie Kemble and her mother, Mimi McMakin, run a kind of incidental retail space filled with things old and new that they spot during their travels and can't bear to leave behind: faux-coral-branch lamps ($195), garden furniture, silver-tipped sea urchins and Dodie Thayer's preppy botanical ceramics (from $68).
- Leta Austin Foster Boutique
- 64 Via Mizner
(561) 655-7367 This quaint, crazily overstuffed shop is packed with lavishly embroidered bath towels and bed linens ($60 to $2,500), plus exquisitely smocked children's clothes (that look as if they were stitched by woodland fairies), fanciful china and hand-painted lamps. Dainty scalloped hand towels (from $25 to $200) make wonderful gifts.
- Shi Shi Gallery
- 3230 South Dixie Hwy
(561) 228-8996 Nikki Trammell, owner of this wildly glamorous, girly new shop, has already established herself as one of the sharpest-eyed collectors on the strip. No doubt the buzz is also due to her dramatic, stylized window displays and vignettes filled with taxidermy, metal trees and drippy glass chandeliers. Expect to find funky pieces from the '40s through the '70s, as well as retro odds and ends.
