Ralph J. Lauren was born in the New York City borough of The Bronx to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants Fraydl and Frank Lifshitz, his father was a house painter.
From a very young age, he started working after school to earn money to buy stylish, expensive suits with an early preference for quality over quantity. His attire soon gave him a trendy reputation among his peers. The well-known Calvin Klein, a younger contemporary also lived in the same Bronx neighbourhood. Source

Our very own Kenneth Cole, born in Brooklyn with all the inherent street smarts of a genius New Yorker, this All American designer sold 40,000 pairs of shoes in 2.5 days from a tractor trailer parked in Central Manhattan. All his ingenuity, resourcefulness and innovative thinking has created the Kenneth Cole leather and fashion clothing sensation of today. Using the finest leathers and designing for quality first, trend second, the Cole brand is rapidly becoming a standard by which other designers are measured. His success over 30 years is legendary and his Spring Summer 2012 collection is as fresh as ever. Luxuriant leathers, sleek clothing and trend-setting casuals for men and women, if you want to turn heads, make sure you reserve a handsome portion of your personal and corporate budget for for styling yourself for success with scrumptious purses, laptop bags and briefcases and fun with his full line of quality footwear and clothing. No longer selling out of the back of a truck, his designs and quality have only improved over the years as he has gathered his international clientele. Sales associates are discreet, polite, attentive and well trained – a pleasure to shop in his elegant Soho store.

After traveling to India in the early '70s, Ferré dove into fashion, first with accessories, and later, launching his own label, Baila, in 1974. Signature women's and men's collections soon followed, and Ferré stepped onto the field of high fashion with the debut of his couture line in 1986. He took his philosophy to the house of Christian Dior, where he was stylistic director from 1989 to 1997. Still influenced by his first trips to Asia, Ferré's designs display an East-meets-West aesthetic that vehemently rejects trends and gimmicks, concentrating instead on a relaxed sophistication and casual elegance.

Video: New York Fashion Week 2007 - DKNY Fall Runway Show

Simply stated, DKNY is the energy and spirit of New York. International, eclectic, fun, fast and real. DKNY addresses the real-life needs of people everywhere, from work to weekend, jeans to evening. Both fashionable and friendly, DKNY consistently delivers its unique mix of style around the world.

If you ever find yourself in Manhattan, looking for something unique and different to wear for Spring-Summer 2012, stop into Etro right off of Madison Avenue. Probably the most interesting clothing store you'll find yourself in with their colorful, visually daring dresses. If you really want to stand out in a crowd, this would be the perfect place to go. From formal attire with a beautiful Italian twist to almost spunky men's accessories, they have a grand selection. You truly have to have a need to stand out if you shop here. The employees mirror the interesting and colorful style of the store, some of them dressing in bright red corduroy trousers with rainbow striped shirts. Don't let their colorful clothing scare you off, however. The employees are some of the most friendly and are exceptionally helpful. The store holds a great reputation as a fashion destination for jet-setters and celebrities alike. If you feel as though you're getting lost in a sea of colors and bold patterns, worry not. The colorful and trendy accessories will lead you all the way up to the register and leave you wanting to come back again and again.

The Missoni boutique, located in Manhattan off of Madison Avenue, is a rather popular store, garnering plenty of attention with their vivid colors and unmistakable prints. Shocking blue dresses with strong brown compliments, bright yellows gently calmed with clean whites, even their most creative combinations seem to blend and contrast to create a gorgeous color pallet on their selections. The Summer 2012 collection is a perfect example of the uniqueness of the store. The brilliantly sophisticated collection is a massive favorite amongst the women of New York, as they rush to buy the dresses. For those interested in a little something for those summer getaways or parties, Missoni has an impressive swim suit collection that doesn't skip out on the fabulous summer fun color choices. The quality of the clothing is superb, all that we have come to expect in the best Italian designers. This vastly unique store is well put together, clean and alive with happy, helpful employees. The location is grand, in the middle of so many other top fashion houses, but still standing out amongst the crowd. A truly unique shopping experience that will keep you coming back again and again for more.

Victoria's secret is a specialty retailer of women's intimate apparel. It has about 1,000 Victoria's Secret lingerie stores and 100 stand-alone Victoria's Secret Beauty Stores in the US, mostly mall-based. It sells bras, panties, hosiery, beauty products, sleepwear, and more. Victoria's Secret mails more than 400 million of its catalogs per year.
Victoria's Secret decidedly built its image with a fairly conservative, middle-class shopper in mind and avoided any connotations of sleaziness which lingerie might carry.
The company gained notoriety in the early 1990s after it began to use supermodels in its advertising and fashion shows. Throughout the past decade, it refused to follow the celebrity trend, turning down at least one celebrity a month begging to model the brand. Source

In addition to its heritage as a leather goods firm, Longchamp has cultivated a devoted following and brand that is now known for its designs. Venturing into partnerships with notable designers, artists and celebrities has seen the likes of Thomas Heatherwick design Longchamp's SoHo boutique, and Tracey Emin and model Kate Moss create special collections. Moss has also appeared in a number of Lonchamp advertising campaigns. Source: en.wikipedia.org

Shopping in Queens for specialty casual apparel and accessories for your teen? How about trendy clothing at competitive prices for your 7-12 year old? If you answered yes to either of these questions then you are fortunate enough to sop your heart out at Queens Aeropostale, a New York City clothing gem and an icon in youthful quality casual clothing that your teen will actually wear. Located on the middle of Queens Boulevard, Aeropostale has raised the bar for young adult fashion by offering high-quality, active-orientated clothing at compelling values. Aeopostale has been able to curb costs and control their brand by designing, sourcing, marketing and selling all of its own merchandise. Aeropostale fashions can only be purchased from their own clothing stores, giving an air of exclusivity to their trendy clothing styles and clients by being one of the few designers to be sole distributors of their own brand. Also known for its in-store atmosphere, they provide a hip ambiance that is cool for kids and enjoyable for adults. Catering to the young at heart, don’t be surprised if you end up selecting a few items for yourself. This Queens clothing store is a must while shopping in New York City.

Founded by Donald and Doris Fisher as a small San Francisco based clothing store with just a handful of employees, Gap has turned into one of the world’s most recognizable and prestigious clothing store brands. A visit to New York City’s Gap is like a visit to Starbucks – just say when. With its Manhattan clothing store, The Gap has solidified itself as a staple of the New York fashion scene and offers a vast selection of must-have uptown apparel . Along with the Gap banner, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta are all labels available through Gap retailers and covers all ages and styles of fashion, clothing and accessories. Celebrity endorsements from Whoopi Goldberg, Spike Lee and Lorraine Bracco, to name a few, have brought The Gap to the masses and has forever made it part of Americana. Even today, Gap continues its dominance of the fashion industry as it continues to be recognized as the US’s largest specialty apparel retailer and keeps its hand on the pulse of the fashion world. For awesome gifts, family friendly atmospheres and an overall great shopping experience make Manhattan’s Gap one of the stores you visit in the New York fashion scene.

From the beaches of California to the busy streets of New York, Pacsun has established itself as a distinctive and innovative New York City clothing store that embraces its west coast roots and shares it with an East Coast lifestyle. Located in Elhurst, Pacsun is far more than a traditional Queens clothing store; it is a status symbol of a lifestyle not readily available in the New York clothing scene. Offering much more than surfboards and board wax, Pacsun’s reached out into the entire youth culture and now offers a full line of casual and active sport apparel. Men’s wear, women’s wear, swimsuits, shoes, denim and of course surf shorts are all part of Pacsun’s unique designer collections that give you quality clothing in a variety of up-to-date fashions. Another interest of note is Pacsun’s dedication to employees by providing extraordinary training and services to ensure that you, the customer, receive the very best NYC shopping experience. Pacsun’s desire is to stay true to their roots in youth culture and offer what’s new now. With their store in Queens they continue to succeed with that mentality and offer a welcome change from the mundane in the fashion world.

Simply elegant. Barbara Bui, combines the simplicity of good design sense with the elegance of her native Paris and catapulted into the hottest fashion markets of the world. Manhattan, Milan, Rodeo Dr, Frand, Italy, Monaco, Lebanon and Russia, just stroll down Prince in Greenwich Village and save the price of jet fuel by shopping in America. White is her basic color palate with ebony incorporated for drama. She excels at adding the jeweled colors of the season. Her Spring Summer 2012 collections radiate with this year’s sunburst yellow and ripe tangerine. Cooling with a bit of fresh live green, Bui designs to enhance a woman’s beauty by making the deceptive simple elegance a canvass for a woman’s natural grace. In fact, if Grace Kelly were alive today, she would be all over Barbara Bui’s clean and flowing garb, especially the gorgeous gowns that fall to the floor in perfect symmetry. Gowns, suits, tops , skirts, pants, knitwear, casual, formal, bags to make you whimper and shoes to incite passion, browse through all her accessories and shop wisely. Once you wear a Barbara Bui original, New York City shopping will have a whole new meaning for you.

Liz Claiborne is a Belgian-born fashion designer. She immigrated to the United States in 1939, and was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She attended St. Timothy's, a boarding school then in Catonsville, Maryland. Rather than finishing high school, she went to Europe to study art. In 1949, she won the Jacques Heim National Design Contest, and then moved to New York City where she worked as a sketch artist at the sportswear house Tina Leser. She worked as a designer for Dan Keller and Youth Group Inc., before starting her own design company, Liz Claiborne Inc., in 1976. The firm grew from its origins designing affordable active sportswear for women and is now a multi billion-dollar enterprise. Source

Modern sportswear, career clothes that work, for women sizes 14 and up.