GO WEST, YOUNG SHOPPER

Like New York’s South Street Seaport or San Francisco’s Pier 39, Dallas’s West End Marketplace at Market and Munger streets in downtown Dallas is a bazaar of eclectic retail ventures. The five-story atrium is crowded with shops catering to diverse fashion tastes. On the third floor, cowboy clothes from all over Texas are the calling card of Dallas Western Wear. The store touts its own “Cadillac Hat Bar” in a genuine ’56 Cadillac.

But, for those who prefer the safer side of fashion, the Generic Clothing Co. offers up basics such as skirts, cardigans, crew-neck tops, and ankle-length pants. The store’s theme is to mix and match for the optimum generic look.

Down a level. The Joy of Ireland offers more than a little Irish spring. Cashmere, wool, or cotton sweaters, coats, and capes are displayed on antique furniture.

Hand painting is raised to a fashionable level at two West End shops. Taos Artwear Co.’s, hand-painted fleece coats, dresses, and skirts are given a Southwestern flavor; other sportswear separates are also available in deep, rich, desert colors. And art deco aficionados will enjoy the abstract hand-painted designs on cotton and 100 percent silk at Frillz

TV lovers will get a kick out of Top This, a T-shirt shop that immortalizes popular TV characters on silkscreened tops. Meet Spuds MacKenzie, that hip canine who likes to drink Budweiser, or opt for The Quigmans. The Jetsons, or Dick and Jane.

The pink and blue doll house at Nannie’s carries an assortment of children’s clothing and baby accessories shown on giant tinker toys. Diana Esber Beauty is a personalized cosmetics shop that blends foundation with powder to match any skin color. Fashion costume jewelry is also carried.

Accessories With Pizazzz carries an assortment of unique jewelry pieces. Earrings, pins, broaches, handbags, gloves, and scarves will delight the person who has everything. For those who are earth lovers, the folks at Nature’s Jewelry gather the fallen autumn leaves, dig for sea shells, and then dip them into twenty-four-karat gold for unique accessory items.

On the lower level. Tannery West specializes in leather products for men and women. The Texas T*Shirt Co. offers cotton shirts and pants that display Texas slogans like “Don’t Mess With Texas.” Sunvision sports fashionable sunglasses suitable for all pocketbooks. And West End Hattery, a milliner catering to both sexes, features, among others, exotic animal print pill boxes and “Crocodile Dundee” hats.