It’s not just a destination for tourists looking to buy knockoff handbags.
The stretch of Canal Street west of Broadway has long been known as a venue for hawkers, but, in recent years, it’s blossomed into a nexus of independent high-end men’s clothing stores.
“I love the juxtaposition,” William Cooper, founder of William White, a luxury lifestyle brand that opened an “emporium” on Canal this past fall, told NYNext. “It’s so New York.”
In the hybrid café-showroom, shoppers — typically designers, finance and tech types — can grab an espresso made from Yemeni beans, try on $700 corduroy pants or test out a $50,000 corduroy couch.
The Canal Street boutique boom began in the fall of 2020 when Knickerbocker — a brand offering elevated menswear, originally manufactured on the border of Brooklyn and Queens — signed a lease for a flagship store at Wooster and Canal.
At the time, the block was dominated by shuttered storefronts and souvenir stands selling ‘I love New York’ t-shirts. There was no precedent for anything designer.
“They took a risk, they were alone,” said Jack Albert Laboz, a principal with United American Land, which owns 15 buildings on Canal, including the ones Knickerbocker and the William White Emporium occupy. “But, [Knickerbocker’s owners] saw the vision.”
In 2021, Drake’s, a Savile Row haberdasher, moved to Canal from Prince Street in Soho. The British brand, which was first established in the 1970s and initially focused only on ties and accessories, has risen in recent years as part of the preppy resurgence in fashion.
“[Ownership] has a romantic feeling about Canal Street — the counterfeit guys across the street, the old artist lofts of 30 years ago,” Drake’s made-to-order lead Jack Nagla told NYNext of the motivation behind the move.
The menswear brand the Brooklyn Circus was drawn to the area after noting the other boutiques moving in. It brought its apparel — which plays with both urban and preppy elements in a style known as “Black Ivy” — to Canal in the Spring of 2023.
“We saw these menswear brands showing up and wanted to be involved,” said Malik Tate, Director of Operations for the label, which has done collabs with the Gap, Puma, Lee and others.
Canal’s cohesion was also part of the pull for Merz b. Schwanen, a heritage German brand best known for its heavy-weight, vintage-style t-shirts. They’ve been in the spotlight since 2022, when Jeremy Allen White’s character in “The Bear,” Carmy, began flexing his chef muscles in one of their classic white tees.
In the Spring of 2024, Laboz showed Merz’s married co-owners, Peter and Gitta Plotnicki, a vacancy sandwiched between Knickerbocker and The Brooklyn Circus.
It was nearly two years after “The Bear” debuted, and the couple was looking to capitalize on growing buzz stateside. They signed the lease for their North American flagship that very day.
“Having these neighbors made our decision easy,” Peter told NYNext.
It was a dream come true: Three decades earlier, Gitta, then a fashion student in Berlin, had brought Peter to Canal to take pictures of storefronts for her senior thesis project.
“That vibrant energy,” Gitta remembered. “We were obsessed.”
There’s a sense of community amongst the boutiques. The Brooklyn Circus hosts an annual Juneteenth block party and also leads a running club that includes employees from nearly every other clothing store on Canal.
Beyond menswear, other upscale retailers are moving in, as well. Happier Grocer, a sort of mini-Erewhon that sells $17 smoothies, opened on Canal between Wooster and West Broadway in 2024. Wellness club Remedy Place, which offers guided ice baths and red light therapy, followed in 2025.
Infrastructure is part of the area’s appeal. Multiple subway lines stop nearby, the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District preserves architectural uniformity, and last fall, the city announced plans for expanded sidewalks and pedestrian improvements along Canal.
In spite of the continuous changes, the street’s newer tenants are trying to preserve the delicate balance with their older neighbors.
Merz sourced fixtures from a lighting store that has been on the block for 49 years. Others bought flooring and sound systems from similar holdovers.
And yet, momentum is hard to ignore. What began west of Broadway is now pressing east.
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United American Land owns three of the four corners at Broadway and Canal. Laboz confirmed plans to redevelop two, including one for retail.
“But I don’t think Canal will ever completely gentrify the way the Upper East Side has,” Cooper said. “New Yorkers always find the cracks and crevices.”
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