As you could expect, many of the top-flight Italian designers and fashion houses like Versace, Missoni, Krizia, MaxMara, Trussardi, Gucci, Armani, Prada, Valentino and Dolce e Gabbana (the only ones with a local connection) are represented in Venice, most of their outlets being clustered within a street or two of the Piazza. For those with wallets as deep as oil wells, the Mercerie, Frezzeria, Calle Goldoni, Calle Vallaresso and Calle Larga XXII Marzo are the most fruitful zones. The best shops for a range of high fashion are La Coupole (Frezzeria and Calle Larga XXII Marzo), Elysée (Frezzeria and Calle Goldoni), Al Duca d'Aosta (Merceria del Capitello), and La Fenice (Calle Larga XXII Marzo).

For more moderately priced clothes, there's the inevitable Benetton, Sisley and Stefanel (all with branches in the Mercerie), and Coin, a national department store based in Venice. Coin's home branch specializes in clothing, and is located between the Rialto and San Giovanni Crisostomo. The area between Campo San Bartolomeo and Santi Apostoli is well supplied with shops aimed at a young clientele, as is the line of streets running from Ruga Vecchia San Giovanni to San Polo, on the other side of the Canal Grande. None really stands out from the crowd, though.

The Venetian taste in clothes is pretty conservative, but more idiosyncratic stuff is sold at Fiorella, on Campo S. Stefano (San Marco), where the wacky jackets are beautifully made and wittily displayed - the mannequins have female bodies but their faces are modeled on portraits of the doges.

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