Selling nothing but handmade umbrellas and parasols since 1834 and still in business probably because of their attention to detail and passion for this particular accessory. You can find dainty women’s umbrellas in bright pink, violet, emerald green, all with contrasting trims as well as wooden-handled men’s versions and elegant walking canes suitable to become family heirlooms. There’s even an haute couture collection with detailing like hand-sewn beads. A great source for gifts for people who have everything; these umbrellas are recognizable to those in the know, so it’s you’re access to a secret club as well as a way to stay dry. Note: This same shop was owned by and named Madeleine Gély before she sold it to the current owner. Métro: Rue du Bac.

Fans of vintage fashion will love this offbeat shop not far from the Gare St.-Lazare. Anouschka carries everything from 1930s tennis dresses and 1950s Dior to 1970s Saint Laurent and 1980s Alaia, Mugler and Montana. By appointment only. Métro: Havre-Caumartin.

For a bohemian chic look at reasonable prices, this chain, founded by Gabriella Cortes, sells caftans, skirts, bags and blouses with an ethnic but stylish slant. Geometric prints, tie-dyed fabrics and crochets are perennials. See Antik Batik Enfant for kids’ clothes and her maternity line.

Nicolas Ghesquière is the rising star of a new generation of designers for chic Parisiennes who love his tailored pantsuits and knitwear. Métro: Alma-Marceau.

Italian designer Anna Molinari creates luxurious feminine clothes for women who want to look modern without being trendy. With her first Blumarine flagship boutique in France, you can now see her entire collection from accessories (to-die-for sexy sandals) to day and evening wear that will make you wish for dress-up worthy invitations. Of course, if you find the perfect flirty dress, you can always walk a short way down the Avenue Montaigne for cocktails at the Plaza Athénée.

Panama hats woven of the finest straw and in a variety of styles for both men and women can be found in the outpost of this historic company, which was founded in 1857. Métro: St.-Sulpice.

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Camille Fournet has long been considered one of the finest makers of watch straps—Patek Phillipe, for instance, uses its alligator bands. Last year, it opened this boutique, just off of the Rue du Rivoli, to sell a range of goods of the same exquisite detailing. The house chooses only the finest hides (caiman, alligator, lizard and shark, among them), and each is rubbed with agate to bring out the color and texture. Working with haute-couture craftsmen, it has adorned its straps with stones, sequins and embroidery for rare bespoke pieces. In the elegant boutique, you will find wallets, change purses, passport sleeves, money clips, jewelry rolls and mobile-phone straps in a dizzying array of colors and finishes, from citrus orange alligator and pale pink ostrich to cornflower blue shark. The computer bags, with canvas sides and leather trims in the same choice of colors and skins as everything else, cost more than most of the laptops they would hold but are undoubtedly among the best-looking such carriers you’ll ever see.

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The Spanish espadrille shop’s Paris outpost near Colette sells every kind of the rope shoe that you can imagine in platforms and flats and multiple colors and patterns. Métro: Pyramides, Palais Royal.

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As Hermès is to saddles so is Causse to gloves. Never heard of them? Well, that may be because until last fall, the glovemaker, or gantier, made exquisite leather gloves for the great couture houses like Chanel and Dior, as well as Hermès and Colette, but didn’t have its own retail outlet. Now, Causse, which was founded in France’s glove capital, Millau, in 1896, has opened a little jewel of a boutique just between the Place Vendôme and the Rue de Rivoli. With blond wood walls lined with elegant drawers and sculptural metal hands modeling gloves of all kinds, the small shop has the fetishistic allure of the world’s top shoe stores. This season’s standout models: the pale grey elbow-length lizard; vibrant red lambskin with patent leather bows; metallic and fingerless driving mittens. All are still made at Millau’s last glove-making factory, which has another boutique and a museum devoted to past collections. (Visits to the atelier at Millau can be made in advance.)

Prices begin at 100 euro a pair. The website features a selection from the current collection.

Sexy lingerie and suits. Métro: Tuileries.

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The ultimate men’s shop for guys who want the highest-quality of old world tailoring and gorgeous fabrics but who have the confidence to be conservative yet colorful. The first floor sells exquisite silk ties and scarves and accessories (the suede slippers in a rainbow of colors are great gifts for frequent fliers). Upstairs, you’ll find shirts, pajamas, robes and custom-tailoring. There’s even a room of children’s clothes with miniature button-down shirts, blazers and shorts for tiny dandies, just to the right of the elevator on the ground floor. Métro: Opéra, Madeleine.

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Shoe-mad shoppers should (re)visit Christian Louboutin’s boutique. With his signature red soles, Louboutin’s shoes are just plain out-there sexy but also beautifully made and very comfortable. There’s a second store at 38 Rue de Grenelle on the Left Bank. Métro: Louvre-Rivoli.

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Independent boutiques like this are disappearing as Paris, like so many other cities, succumbs to globalization. Chrisine Le Guen worked for years as a buyer, scouting French designers for Japanese department stores. Thankfully, a number of years ago, she decided to set up shop of her own to sell the kinds of clothes that she found harder and harder to find. In a narrow, loft-like space, just off Boulevard St.-Germain, she displays her discoveries: the moderately priced, stylish designs of up-and-coming talents. She only buys a few pieces at a time from lines such as L.O.T.C. On my last visit, there were fine cotton T-shirts with a flattering tie front (40 euros); a pale pink A-line wool dress with three-quarter sleeves that evoked Audrey Hepburn (70 euros) and a long shift dress in a mosaic print reminiscent of Pucci in the ‘60s (190 euros). “My clients shop at Chloé and Vuitton but they also want things that are not so expensive and just as attractive,” explains Le Guen. “That’s what I have. Things I want to wear for under 250 euros.” Métro: St.-Germain.

Hip casual clothes in the vein of agnès b. Her collections are either great or awful, depending on the season.

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It’s a shade less cutting-edge than it was a few years ago, but Colette is still in the forefront of the fashion concept store, carrying everything from art books, to whimsical Japanese beach sandals, the latest organic toiletries and a carefully edited selection of clothing and home accessories. The basement Water Bar pioneered the not-terribly-interesting idea of offering over eighty different kinds of bottled water. Closed Sunday. Métro: Tuileries.

Read about a special one-month pop-up store curated by Colette and hosted by the Gap in New York.

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Custom shoemaker Pierre Corthay apprenticed at John Lobb and Berluti before opening his own atelier on the Right Bank in 1990. His big break came when Suzy Menkes of The International Herald Tribune wrote him up and the Sultan of Brunei decided to order 150 bespoke pairs. In 2001, he launched a ready-to-wear line, and its success has allowed him to open boutiques in Japan, where he has a cult following. This winter, they also introduced a line of leather accessories, including belts and wallets. A women’s line is under consideration. Métro: Opéra.

M. Ludot, the world-known vintage-fashion merchant, has three treasure-filled boutiques in the galleries of the Palais Royal, each one specializing in something different—No. 20 is for couture, No. 24 for ready-to-wear and accessories and No. 125 for the little black dress. The inventory turns over constantly, so there’s no time to dither—that vintage Hermès scarf, Chanel suit or Dior dress could be gone by the time you decide to bite the bullet. Métro: Palais Royal.

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To showcase his women’s collection, Belgian design god Dries Van Noten recently opened a gorgeous gallery in a former bookstore on the Seine, facing the Louvre. It may not be a museum, but browsing through his beautifully tailored and constructed clothes here feels like a form of art appreciation. The two-story space itself dazzles with chandeliers, antiques amassed by Van Noten and inviting lounge chairs intended undoubtedly for the many men who will be doomed to wait while their female companions spend as much time as possible in the dressing room. The French have loved the designer since he showed his first collection here in the early 1990s, and clearly they still do.

Just behind the Madeleine, you can view the entire Eres collection of gorgeous bathing suits, especially the bikinis, and lingerie. Métro: Madeleine.

Cashmere lovers flock here for fantastic quality, ranging from whisper-thin sweaters in pastel colors in summer to chunky, jewel-toned blankets in winter.

Occupying the prime corner where Sulka long stood, Franck Namani offers a more casual (read modern) take on conservative dressing for the wealthy. Women will find high-quality knits and well-tailored skirts that would allow them to blend in at the Polo or any other country club that they might go to for lunch. Men, too, can find well-cut shirts and blazers as well as shelves filled with bathing trunks in dozens of colors that are a bit less flamboyant than those from Vilbrequin. There’s another location in the 8th arrondissement near the Avenue Montaigne on Rue Marbeuf.

This small Left Bank shop sells pants and only pants in a range of styles and colors. They are renowned for their great fit. Once you find a style you like, it’s impossible not to buy them in many colors. Métro: Odéon.

The leather goods of this French luggage house, founded in 1853, can now be found in exclusive department stores from Bergdorf’s and Barneys in New York to Harvey Nichols in Hong Kong, but there’s a wider selection— and, of course, added cachet to buying it—at the original Right Bank flagship. Providers of custom leather luggage since the early 20th century, Goyard formerly stamped its cases with the family crests of its aristocratic customers; today, its monograms are the most popular bespoke request. They will create custom cases from sleek CD cases or ipod sleeves to trunks for polo equipment or tea kits in any of their ten available colors. The dog collars and traveling food and water case are great gifts for animal lovers. Closed Sunday. Métro: Tuileries.

This charming hat shop near Sèvres Babylone on the Left Bank is just the kind of boutique that showcases Paris’s devotion to fashion and tradition of craftsmanship—even though it’s not Parisian. It happens to be the first foreign outpost of the renowned Florence hatmaker Grevi. Opened two years, this boutique specializes in only one accessory: the hat. From wide-brimmed statements of glamour to child-size Easter bonnets, the creations that fill the window and hat stands celebrate the art of framing one’s face. Hand-finished adornments attest to each one’s uniqueness and evoke such admiration that it’s easy to imagine a new era of hat madness.

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The new boutique that has Paris shoppers buzzing and fashion editors gushing is Heimstone. The designers behind the label, Alix Petit and Delphine Delafon, launched the label a few seasons back (after they met while both working for Michel Klein). Uma Thurman bought one of their bathing suit designs from a friend of theirs and the pouty French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg is a fan. The feminine side comes from Alix, who claims only to wear dresses, and the edgier cool comes from Delphine who favors jeans. The result: styles that mix flirty with rock n’ roll or gamine goes grunge. Major hit this spring is the mini military style suede jackets with lurex trim. Trendy boutiques from Tokyo to L.A. picked up pieces of their collection last year, but now the whole line is available in their first retail outlet recently opened on one of the great shopping streets of the Left Bank.

Calling all shoe fiends, this trendy shop carries the very latest in designer footwear. Métro: Saint-Sulpice.

Ten years after she opened her first boutique, Isabel Marant still inspires the kind of obsessed-fan devotion that one rarely encounters anywhere other than at an Apple Store. On a recent Saturday afternoon, crowds of soignée women swarmed her Rue Jacob store. No sale in progress. “It’s like this all the time,” the saleslady explained. The reason: her bohemian, chic designs that are hipper than Chloe or Prada at a fraction of the price. Her printed raw silk shirts draw the same kind of must-have impulse of Oscar de la Renta’s ethnic luxe items but at much less cost and exposure. Her less expensive Etoile line is sold upstairs. And now that her husband, Jerome Dreyfuss, has opened his first handbag store right next door, the perfect accessory lies steps away. Métro: St.-Germain.

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One man’s trash is another man’s treasure is a phrase that could be used to describe the birth of this French handbag company. Isabelle Puech and Benoit Jamin fell in love as students in 1988 and bonded over their passion for fashion. Working in a design district, they plucked discarded remnants from the trash and since they were not large enough to use for dresses or shirts, they used them to adorn handbags. A distinctive style was born and, soon after, fashion houses from Balmain and Chanel to Chloé were taking their bags down the runway. Since opening their first Paris boutique in 1996, the duo have opened three more, and they now have boutiques in New York, Milan and Tokyo as well as distribution in many countries. Bags are produced in limited editions, though, with twice yearly collections. (Summer and winter collections each feature 80 styles available at the four boutiques in Paris along with scarves and jewelry.) Women of confidence and individual style who prefer to make their own style statements and not to follow the herd carry these statements of purse-onality.

Tip: Devotees and those in the know go to Jamin Puech Inventaire in the 10th—it’s the only boutique that carries bags from past collections, as well as samples and one-offs.

Jamin Puech Inventaire: 61 Rue d’Hauteville, 10th; 33 (0) 1-40-22-08-32: Métro: Grands Boulevards.

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On the street where so many notable French and Americans (from Delacroix and Racine to Hemingway) have lived, there is a new reason for French and Americans to come shop. Jerome Dreyfuss, a bad-boy designer in the ‘90s, has just opened his first shop to showcase the handbags that have made him a cult figure among fashion editors and couture cognoscenti. With styles that range from brightly-colored leather envelope-sized zippered purses to his vast, multi-pouched carry-alls in Ikat-like painted fabric, it’s no wonder that customers often loiter for ages trying to decide which ones to buy. When Dreyfuss drops in the corner shop, that is conveniently located right next to his wife’s wildly popular clothing boutique, Isabel Marant, he can be enlisted to offer advice. Métro: St.-Germain.

Joyce Ma made her name exporting well-known European labels to Asia, but here she showcases lesser-known Asian and European designers whose fashions, designs, jewelry or other kinds of works are displayed as art, even treated to opening exhibitions. Open weekdays, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Closed weekends (except during Fashion Week). Métro: Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre.

Beautiful cashmere T-shirts and sweaters in interesting styles. Métro: St.-Sulpice.

Great little bathing suit shop from St.-Tropez that sells trunks for men and boys in coordinating patterns (much like Vilbrequin but less expensive) and bikinis that you can mix and match tops and bottoms. Also, have very cute beach shoes and accessories. You can preview the suits online.

For super comfortable pajamas and bathrobes in cotton and cashmere and silk. Men can find striped pajamas in traditional cuts and strong stripes. Women’s choices range from nightgowns with embroidered trims to men’s style pjs in feminine prints. The cashmere wraps, bathrobes and slippers make you want to delay ever dressing.

Armand Hadida was one of the makers of the Marais with this concept store that mixes fashion with high design. He has since expanded—there’s even a boutique in Tokyo—and five in Paris. Each shop feels different, though; the one on the Champs-Elysées has more of an English men’s club aesthetic with tufted leather sofas and wooden display cases. Whereas the ones in the Marais have more of an industrial look with lots of glass and steel, which means that these are individual boutiques, not part of a chain. The location at Rue Boissy d’Anglas, in the 8th, features women’s clothing as well as home décor and also boasts a restaurant bar.

If you only do one department store in Paris, make it this grande dame on the Left Bank. It may be the city’s oldest department store—it was founded in 1848—but don’t be fooled by the 19th-century exterior (in the Rue de Babylone entrance, note the mosaics of goods once sold here). Following its acquisition by LVMH, the French luxury-goods conglomerate, ten years ago, it’s evolved into one of the most exclusive stores in Europe. The company has shrewdly edited down its once encyclopedic fashion inventory to the chicest must-have brands.

The ground-floor beauty department is a true temple to vanity and the menswear department should not be missed. Take a break at the Delicabar (www.delicabar.fr), with a contemporary look by Claudio Colucci and offering a sweet-and-savory menu by chef Sébastien Gaudard. It’s easily the coolest in-retail restaurant to be found anywhere. La Grande Épicerie (www.lagrandeepicerie.fr), Le Bon Marché’s sprawling food hall, is just across the street from the main store. Closed Sunday. Métro: Sèvres-Babylone.

Lyon-based fashion designer Louise Della opened her first Paris boutique last February and for those who like high drama in their everyday clothes, this is worth a stop. Her theatrical designs may include a black blouse with sheer strips; a flouncy skirt with polka-dot trim or a pale blue trench coat painted with spring tulips. Those who like the bright colors and boldness of Kenzo with a slightly more feminine edge will probably admire the splashy looks here. Métro: St.-Germain-des-Prés.

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The former muse of Yves Saint Laurent, Loulou de la Falaise stocks her Right Bank shop with handsome leather-trimmed handbags, knitwear, accessories and other items needed to create a Parisian look. Métro: Concorde.