Shopping

Calgary is a retail mecca, with virtually all of the world's top luxury brands well-represented -- a reflection of the moneyed population that's riding high at the moment with the upward-spiraling price of oil. People here like to buy stuff, and a vast array of retail opportunities have sprung up to accommodate them. The avant-garde is in short supply, and mega-mall chain fare is the order of the day. But there are a handful of unique experiences to be had, if you want to put a dent in your wallet.

Downtown

Here you'll find a network of multi-level malls tucked into the bases of the office towers, the majority of them with entrances on the Stephen Avenue Mall. This is where much of Calgary's high-end retail resides, anchored by swish department store Holt Renfrew in the Eaton Centre (751 3rd St. SW; tel. 403/269-7341; www.holtrenfrew.ca). Think Neiman Marcus, and you've more or less got it: high-priced brands like Jil Sander, Giorgio Armani, Hugo Boss, and Paul Smith, arrayed in luxurious, if somewhat cramped, environs. For Calgary's many executives, this is also power-suit central, with a made-to-measure shop as well.

As a curious counterpoint, the Eaton Centre also sports a Sears (tel. 403/298-4311; www.sears.ca), which can be handy for lost or forgotten essentials. The Eaton Centre is compact but four stories high, and is connected to the east via the Plus 15 walkway system to the TD Centre, another venue for high-end shopping. Many of the major chain-brand stores are to be found between these two malls, like Club Monaco, Banana Republic, Eddie Bauer, Roots, Lacoste, and Gap. There's also a Birk's store here, which is probably Canada's most venerable independent jeweler and silverware dealer.

Famed Canadian menswear dealer Harry Rosen occupies two levels of the TD Centre, on floors 2 and 3. Notable women's fashion dealers include BCBG by Max Azria, Jacob, and Esprit. Street level, you'll find a Sport Mart, a discount sporting goods store.

South of the TD Centre -- once again, reachable by the Plus 15 walkway -- you'll find the less-occupied but still quite swanky Banker's Hall (335 8th Ave. SW; tel. 403/770-7145; www.bankershall.ca). The Brass Monocle (tel. 403/228-9191; www.brassmonocle.com), perhaps the city's most fashion-forward optician, is found here, along with pricey German leather goods maker Taschen!, and a pricey duo of men's and women's fashion, Henry Singer and B/U's (tel. 403/234-8585; www.henrysinger.com).

Continuing along Stephen Avenue along the Plus 15 level, you'll eventually reach Scotia Fashion Centre, a drab, empty-feeling portion of the downtown shopping area that nonetheless leads to The Bay (200 8th Ave. SW; tel. 403/262-0345; www.hbc.ca), a venerable Canadian department store that's a cut above Sears in terms of being a little more upmarket. Fashion brands like Calvin Klein can be found here, along with electronics, sporting goods, and furniture. It's more modest than, say, Holt's, but it's always good value and a good place to replace essentials -- bathing suits, underwear, socks -- forgotten or lost along the way.

The density of second-level mall shopping downtown has done much to blunt the actual retail opportunities on the streets themselves, but Stephen Avenue holds at least a couple of options. Riley and McCormick's (220 8th Ave. SW; tel. 800/661-1585 or 403/262-1556; www.realcowboys.com) is an authentic westernwear shop at the stroll's eastern end, while the Arnold Churgin store (227 8th Ave. SW; tel. 403/262-3366; www.arnoldchurgin.com) is a mainstay for any women's shoe fashionista. Housed in a glossy black art deco building since 1964, Churgin's has flourished in good times and weathered the bad; it's a Calgary institution.

North of the shores of the river finds you at Eau Claire Market (200 Barclay Parade SW; tel. 403/264-6450; www.eauclairemarket.com). Envisioned as a fresh food market modeled after Granville Island in Vancouver, the market never really took off as such. The intervening years have seen it morph into a warehouse for amusing tchotchke and crafts, which, depending on your taste, could consume an entire afternoon, or annoy within minutes. Still, some of the stalls and stands here feature imported fabrics and objects from Asia and South America, as well as local artisan-made goods.

Design District

From 10th Avenue to 12th Avenue SW, and 4th Street to 14th Street SW, Calgary's Design District -- so named in 2006 to draw more people to the area -- includes dozens of furniture and home decor stores, restaurants, art galleries, architects, and home builders.

Flooring, hardware, bedding, dishes, lighting, and furniture can all be found here. Design District shops showcase everything from antiques (The French Connection, 1222 11th Ave. SW; tel. 403/283-4344; www.frenchconnectionantiques.com) to sleek modern design (Koolhaus, 724A 11th Ave. SW; tel. 403/731-5665; www.koolhausdesign; Robert Sweep, 739 11th Ave. SW; tel. 403/262-8525; www.robertsweep.com).

This is the neighborhood to find everything from 18th-century French armoires to Mies van der Rohe Barcelona chairs to cutesy objets, like Alessi clocks and utensils. Walking west down 11th Aveneue SW from 4th Street SW, a casual stroll (without stopping) would cover almost the entire area in about 20 minutes.

17th Avenue/Mission District

This lively zone just south of downtown, from 10th Street to 4th Street SW, and 25th Avenue to 16th Avenue SW, contains much of the city's most eclectic and interesting fashion. A surfeit of vintage shops are to be found here, like Divine (720 17th Ave. SW; tel. 403/228-2540; www.divineplanet.com), a basement-level warehouse of vintage wear that includes a piercing and tattoo parlor, Blue Light Special (601 17th Ave. SW; tel. 403/245-5338), or Junk Star Vintage (718 17th Ave. SW; tel. 403/245-0222).

Eclectic, of-the-moment fashion options abound here as well at shops like Purr (919 17th Ave. SW; tel. 403/244-7877), which carries trendy brands like Ben Sherman, and Goodfoot (736 17th Ave. SW; tel. 403/245-5414; www.getonthegoodfoot.ca), a sneaker store/gallery that prides itself in the most avant-garde and hard-to-find sneaker design. Worth (119-1013 17th Ave. SW; tel. 403/228-1003; www.astorecalledworth.com) provides fashion-forward design for men and women, while Gravity Pope (524 17th Ave. SW; tel. 403/209-0961; www.gravitypope.ca) is one of the premiere hip shoe stores in all of western Canada.

South from 17th Avenue SW on 4th Street SW you'll find mostly restaurants, many of them great, but there's at least one fashion find: Henry (2115A 4th St. SW; tel. 403/209-5030), a men's outlet for high-fashion jeans, with some interesting and eclectic avant-garde women's choices as well.

The Mega Malls

A lot of Calgary shopping is relegated to the suburban malls, the largest of which, Chinook Centre (6455 Macleod Trail SW; tel. 403/255-2161; www.chinookcentre.ca), is a burgeoning centre of commerce replete with every major label and chain store you could possibly think of (the only Williams-Sonoma in town is here). More than 200 stores await within, and another major addition was underway in 2008, giving the shopaholic potential days of diversion in its climate-controlled comfort.

In the northwest, near the University of Calgary, Market Mall (3625 Shaganappi Trail NW; tel. 403/288-5466; www.marketmall.ca) covers a lot of the same ground, with chains galore and acres of climate-controlled comfort, while farther south, SouthCentre (100 Anderson Rd. SE; tel. 403/271-7670; southcentre.shopping.ca) completes Calgary's triumvirate of massive malls. The content varies only slightly, with Chinook being the most complete; expect much of the same content you'd find in the suburban malls of any major North American city.

Bargains

A couple of outlet malls exist on the city's fringes, where you'll find out-of-date but pleasantly inexpensive fare. Deerfoot Mall (901 64th Ave. NE; tel. 403/274-7024; deerfootmall.shopping.ca) in the city's northwest, near the airport just off Deerfoot Trail, offers the ubiquitous Canadian clearance chain Winners (www.winners.ca) as well as second-chance goods from major retailers such as Liz Claiborne, Fairweather, and Smart Set. Generally drab -- its tag line is "Western Canada's only enclosed outlet mall" -- but if you're willing to dig a bit there are bargains to be found.

On the western edge of the city where the foothills start to roll is the aptly named Westhills Towne Centre. All big box, Westhills features the requisite Winners, as well as some better outlets than at Deerfoot, such as Roots, Mexx, Jacob, and Le Château.