Taking the Fifth

When the newest Fifth Avenue blockbuster flagship opened in mid-October, a line of rabid shoppers snaked all the way down 53rd Street to Sixth Avenue to get inside. But despite the store's prestigious address, the masses weren't salivating for limited-edition $5,000 handbags or $20,000 diamond baubles.Rather, the retail outlet was Japanese fast-fashion brand Uniqlo, selling $9.99 skinny jeans on Manhattan's equivalent of the Champs Elysee. With Uniqlo joining Zara, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, H&M and Gap, the mallification of Fifth Avenue was nearly complete, driving the old guard of upscale shoppers to distraction.

"I thought we got rid of Disney and the NBA Store, and we were going to get some grand, luxury emporium," sniffs Hayley Corwick, the Upper East Side blogger behind shopping site Madison Avenue Spy. "Things were looking up. And all of a sudden, it was Hollister and Uniqlo. It's mystifying. The walk from Bergdorf to Saks used to be a dazzling window shopping experience, and now I find it a little more like the new 42nd Street."Fifth Avenue has been the city's most extravagant residential street for 150 years, ever since Caroline Schermerhorn Astor announced its arrival by moving to the corner of Fifth and 34th Street in 1862.

As the moneyed class proliferated or Coach Factory Outlet Retailers, a tony shopping district soon followed, with Bergdorf Goodman and Lord & Taylor's flagship stores opening in 1914 and Saks Fifth Avenue debuting 10 years later.For decades, the stretch between 49th and 60th streets was one of the most expensive in the world, dotted with high-end boutiques such as Cartier, Henri Bendel, Harry Winston and Louis Vuitton. Perhaps its most celebrated shop is Tiffany & Co., where Holly Golightly dreamed of finding a more glamorous life — and the man who'd pay for it all.