Start at the Souk, whose playful, ersatz spice-market interior attracts hipsters who haunt the design boutiques along the trendy Rue Keller.

Yet as he sipped, Mr. Adams gestured toward Native, a fusion bistro at Malcolm X Boulevard and 118th Street, and to a design boutique called Xukuma, near 119th.

Continue through the chic streets of St Germain-des-Pres home to the Paris fashion industry as well as bookshops, art galleries, antique dealers and interior design boutiques.

To produce distinctive new models from these increasingly common platforms, Volkswagen, G.M. and other big carmakers are turning to small and midsize design boutiques, many based in or near Turin.

Even as they work with these independent companies, major carmakers have set up their own design boutiques.

The second purchase was a user experience and creative design boutique entitled Ad Hoc based in Sausalito, California.

After World War II, cutting-edge design boutiques like Bonnier's in New York and Baldwin Kingrey in Chicago carried it.

A self-taught clothing designer, Immonen opened her first design boutique in Helsinki during World War II in 1942 which grew into a success despite the shortages of the ensuing years.

Matthew Izzo, 35, and his business partner, Mark Ax, 35, defected from New York design firms to start their own home and design boutiques, the Matthew Izzo shops.

Given a Mission diet of burritos, margaritas and coffee, creative types seem to thrive - hence the local design boutiques, 'zine bookstores and nonprofit arts venues clustered around Valencia and Mission Sts.