Prince St. (South Side, between Wooster St. and Greene St.)

Heading east on the south side of Prince St., from Wooster St. to Greene St., around 3:30 in the afternoon on February 10. An unseasonably warm, overcast day. The streets were teeming with tourists.

In the storefront of 126 Prince St. is the Carrol Boyes shop, showing her range of handcrafted metal flatware and tableware. There are some odd, unique, little gifty things in here that look pretty interesting, but the window itself suffers from overkill -- with all the glittering objects, it's difficult to focus on any one thing. The hanging paper sculptures aren't helping the clutter issue. Although I do love the chunky people drawings on the ceiling.

There's a terrific handmade handle on the Carrol Boyes store door.

I just love these leftover signs around the city. This rusted old sign is advertising "Commercial Printing, Stationery, Office Supplies, Paper & Twine." Something about this relic really reminds me of an old-school Main Street shop.

The Morrison Hotel Gallery, at 124 Prince St., always has cool photos of rock stars in their window. I dig the anti-pose Kurt Cobain is striking in the big central photo (by Jesse Frohman), and the sleepy, shirtless Miles Davis pic on the left.

The painted jeweled frame in the window of Reinstein/Ross (122 Prince St.) is memorable, and harks toward the store's Egyptian and Etruscan jewelry designs, but the display case is far back away from the window, and lit so that it glows like a sci-fi incubator, making everything in it difficult to see from the street. Also, the security guard (seen as a creepy shadow in the bottom right corner of the photo) glares at everyone who walks by.

At 118 Prince St. is ultra-modern toy and clothing store Kidrobot. Apparently, that giant blue thing in the window is called a Munny, and is made of inflatable vinyl. Although my eye is more quickly drawn to the gleeful Paul McCartney figure by Medicomtoy. The mannequin modeling the fitted hoodie and skinny jeans needs to eat a sandwich, stat, even if she makes for a rather cute nerd girl. I prefer my geeky girlfriends without the horrifying eating disorders.

Yes, I realize I'm anthropomorphizing all these mannequins. But isn't that the point of mannequins?

Kidrobot's eastern window. Is this what the cool kids are wearing these days? I guess the outfits are working that retro-future vibe, but I personally would rather expire than wear a giant, useless safety-pin jammed into the front of my cap.

That's a lot of pink butterflies! Fragments, at 116 Prince St., adds a splash of color to their winter window. I can take or leave the dead trees and fake snow, but I dig the diorama in the middle.

I don't know if Joseph Cornell would love or loathe this "box" in the Fragments window, but I think it works as a great way to make the scale of a full storefront feel more intimate, and sets the jewelry in an unexpected surrealist pastoral narrative.

The Karen Millen flagship store is located at 112-114 Prince St. While I lost some of the photos of the other windows due to reflections and glare (and, um . . . focus), the blend of the snappy green military coat, the mannequin's pose, and the lights all work together to make the image feel quite ecstatic.

Not sure what to say about this display at Karen Millen, except if this alabaster creature greeted me at the door of a fancy dinner party, I'm not sure if I would pretend not to notice that she looks like a refugee from the attenuated aliens of Close Encounters of the Third Kind . . . or if I would run screaming. Nice, simple, flowy black dress, though, even if the pleats give her a rounded mound of tummy.

At 110 Prince St. is Face Stockholm, a Swedish cosmetics and skin care shop. This is the view through the door, as they don't do much with the storefront on the Prince St. side. I like the interior's aesthetic combination of apothecary shop and boudoir.

But my favorite thing about Face Stockholm's shop is that row of busts on top of the cabinet in the back. Freaky and fabulous.

A jewelry street vendor on the corner of Prince St. and Greene St. The guy hunched over was busy twisting wire for new ornaments created on the spot. This booth means business -- they take VISA, MasterCard, or American Express! I do enjoy the serious sparseness of their display.