Vitra
29 Ninth Ave., 212-463-5750
Arhaus
410 W. 13th St., 212-337-9853
Interior design store Vitra presents clean lines and modern constructions. The multilevel shop proffers clever housewares, including mouse pads shaped like elephants, clocks shaped like owls and mid-century furniture for the home or office by such folks as Eames, Saarinen, Starck, Noguchi and Prouvé. Design aficionados will delight in chairs, tables, sofas, stools, sideboards and other objects by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Hella Jongerius and other contemporary designers. A kind sales staff will patiently talk you through the downstairs showroom, which might display an entire room by one person or demonstrate the store's philosophy of mixing carefully crafted objects by several people. If Vitra might strike some as spartan, with fabrics nubby and textured to the touch, Arhaus is lush and overstuffed. Its outpost in the Meatpacking District sells goods for the home office, bedroom, dining room and living room, in 28,000 square feet spread over two floors. There's a lot to see (and a lot to sit in). While some pieces are mass produced, others are one of a kind, discovered on scouting trips in Asia.