If you have been trying to find somewhere in New York that actually stocks the newer designer names in person, the answer right now is Bloomingdale's flagship at 59th and Lexington. The store has finished a run of renovations and reopened its boutiques with more than 35 designers it did not carry before. The rooms look different: calmer lighting, more space between racks, real fitting rooms rather than a corridor of them. It reads as a luxury floor now instead of a department store aisle, and that matters more than it sounds, because trying on a $3,000 coat under fluorescent light is how you talk yourself out of it.

The two floors to know are Level 4 and Level 5. Level 4 is the new designer ready-to-wear home, with Chloe, Proenza Schouler, Isabel Marant, Courreges, Toteme, Acne Studios, FFORME and Heirlome among the arrivals. Level 5 is where the shoe boutiques went in. Everything below is buyable online right now, and every label is also standing on those floors.

Ready-to-wear at this price is the category that punishes you hardest for buying blind, which is the honest argument for Level 4. Coats are the clearest case. A Burberry gabardine trench, an Altuzarra double-breasted wool, a Carolina Herrera cocoon: the difference between the right one and the wrong one is shoulder width and sleeve length, and no size chart tells you that. Same with Erdem and Etro, where the print sits differently on every frame, and with a Christopher John Rogers gown, where the whole point is volume you cannot judge flat.

A few of the new Level 4 labels are in-store only for ready-to-wear. Chloe, Proenza Schouler and Isabel Marant sell shoes and accessories online, but their clothing is on the floor, either walk-in or through a styling appointment. Sizing runs true at Casablanca and Acne Studios, small through the shoulder at Balmain, and generous at FFORME, whose whole cut is built around drape. Bloomingdale's tailors are in the building, so factor alterations into the decision rather than the return.

The shoe boutiques on Level 5 are the part of the renovation that changed the most. Christian Louboutin, Prada, Miu Miu, Jimmy Choo and Saint Laurent each got their own room rather than a shared wall, and Gianvito Rossi, Aquazzura, Golden Goose, Rene Caovilla, Tod's, Nodaleto, Celine and Khaite sit alongside them. Boots are the reason to go in person. Shaft width on an over-the-knee Aquazzura or a tall Miu Miu is not a size you can order, and a 100mm Louboutin and a 100mm Jimmy Choo do not feel the same under the arch.

Buy the sandals and sneakers online if you already know the last. Golden Goose runs long, Prada runs narrow at the toe, and Gianvito Rossi is the most predictable of the group. Handbags sit near both floors, and the same logic applies: strap drop and weight when loaded are things a photograph hides. If you cannot get to 59th Street, any Bloomingdale's stylist can shop the flagship for you by appointment.

We would not send you across town for the sneakers or the slides. You know your size, the photographs are accurate, and the online price is the same. What is worth the trip is anything structured: coats, tall boots, a gown, a bag you intend to carry every day for five years. Those are the purchases people quietly regret, and forty minutes on Level 4 and Level 5 removes most of that risk. The renovated rooms help, though we would rather you noticed the stock than the lighting.

We are less convinced by the appointment-only framing on some of the ready-to-wear. If you want to browse Chloe or Isabel Marant clothing without booking anything, go on a weekday morning when the floor is quiet and nobody will rush you. If you take one thing away, it is this: try on the structured things in store, order the flat things online, and never buy a tall boot you have not zipped.