Fashion Centre at Pentagon City

Not bad for an old-school mall, with copious daylight and royal palms in its deep, plunging atria; its levels are accessible by glass elevator. Anchored by department stores Macy’s and Nordstrom, Fashion City offers better (but maybe not the best) apparel, gifts and specialty goods from 160-odd national franchises such as Gap, Limited and Kenneth Cole, and is surrounded by big-box discount stores to its east and a flank of decent shops in a too-cute outdoor mall (with a winter outdoor skating rink) to its west.