Shopping in Greenwich Village: The best stores and boutiques

The PPB's main focus is on couples looking to invigorate their sex lives with props, potions or costumes. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and the store carries a huge number of toys, starting with cheap bullet vibes and topping out with $100-plus extreme dildos. The company's been in business since 1972, which makes Pink Pussycat a trusted name for dommes and submissives alike.

You’ll be transported to Paris once you step inside this opulent bath-and-body shop. Rich burgundy carpets, gilded wallpaper, a gloriously huge chandelier and a mahogany desk that serves as the checkout area set the stage for the luxurious fragrances ($50–$300), candles ($20–$400), lotions, and soaps from brands like Diptyque and Annick Goutal. Curiosity cabinets house many of the store’s exclusives—the West Village outpost is the only location in the country to sell several items, including candles by Les Secrets Ladurée Paris.  

Murray’s Cheese has been New York City’s most famed and beloved, vast and varied dairy purveyor since it first opened in Greenwich Village decades ago. Today, it has additional locations in and outside of Manhattan, as well as availability via large retailers throughout the United States.  Here at home, you can still consult Murray’s top cheesemongers at its charming Bleecker Street shop, Grand Central outpost and Long Island City locale for samples, including proprietary cave-aged varieties prepared right here in town. They’ll also help you match your picks to charcuterie, jams, spreads and crackers for a veritable feast you can source all in one spot.   You can even learn a bit of the trade at Murray’s downtown flagship via burrata and mozzarella-making classes, or lessons on wine and cheese pairings. The classic address also hosts a mac and cheese pop-up, replete with that titular item, sandwich melts and cheese flights, among other menu items. 

In operation since 1965, this friendly West Village institution sells all manner of fetish attire, as well as books, sex toys, magazines and plenty more.

This vintage mecca has been peddling men’s and women’s clothing and accessories since 1978, serving clientele as diverse as Alexa Chung, Marc Jacobs and Cyndi Lauper. Owner Laura Wills travels the world, scouting eclectic finds that span the 1950s to the 1990s, and organizes clothing racks by decade. Do you need sunglasses from the ’70s? How about a royal-wedding T-shirt from the 1980s? Head upstairs to check out higher-end specialty garments like men’s Moschino printed suit jackets ($595) and Hattie Carnegie satin cap-sleeve dresses with beading ($895). The boutique is transformed into a Halloween showcase for the month of October, and since the staff is made up almost entirely of stylists, it's a great place to put together a complete period look, including the era-appropriate wigs and accessories.

Look for the deep blue awning on Bleecker Street and venture inside to scope out high-end paraphernalia from brand names like Sheldon Black, Medicali and JBD. The clerks are reputably knowledgeable and can service all your tricked-out pieces and one-of-a-kind accessory needs. Make sure to ask about Illadelph Glass products—they’re beautifully crafted and come in many different iterations.

Every weekend, more than 40 independent clothing and accessories designers set up shop at this bazaar, giving patrons the chance to buy a variety of unique wares direct from the makers at up to 30 percent off what they'd normally retail for in stores.

Find more than 140 traditional Scandinavian candies—including the boat-shaped raspberry jelly hallon batar and the salty black licorice kanverade haxvral—at this sleek, whitewashed shop in the West Village. The storefront also carries pantry items (Swedish meatball mix, crisp bread and cloudberry jam) and designer ceramics.

Husband and wife Allison and JJ McGowan opened the second branch of their mom-and-pop boutique to balance out the big-name chain stores inhabiting the West Village. In addition to the bags that made Teich’s original East Village shop popular (such as vintage-inspired lambskin clutches, $125), the new space offers exclusive products made by other local labels, including Studio DuArte, Noli Noli and Grass & Clovers. The space is eco-friendly with recycled-rubber floors, salvaged-wood shelves and walls painted with nontoxic paint. The charming displays of unique men’s and women’s accessories attract passersby, who can get their hands on creative finds like Sherry Truitt recycled sterling-silver, vintage-NYC-map cufflinks ($50). There are also Junkprints necklaces made from a laser-cut vinyl record ($40), a Bobby Joseph stuffed bear created out of a repurposed leather skirt ($250) and an Uptown Artworks cotton West Village street-sign pillow ($120).

This stationery store—with exposed brick, cheerful floral wallpaper and a pink overhanging lamp—exudes West Village charm. It’s owned by sisters Amy Swanson and Beth Salvini, whose family has been in the printing biz for three generations, and nearly everything is designed in-house and produced on an old Gutenberg-style press. Aside from note cards and stationery, GLP also offers notebooks, rubber stamps, labels, gift tags and striking wrapping paper ($3–$5 a sheet).