Friendship heights
Friendship Heights is high-end luxury department store central. You'll find on Wisconsin Ave: Loehmann's 5333 Wisconsin Ave NW, J Crew 5335, Neiman-Marcus 5300, Ann Taylor 5300,5335, Brooks Brothers 5504, Chevy Chase, Bloomingdale's 5400, Chevy Chase, Saks Fifth Ave 5555, Chevy Chase, Mervis Diamond 5480, Chevy Chase, etc.
The shopping district spills across the city boundary into Friendship Village, Maryland, where you'll find:
The Collection at Chevy Chase
A huge collection of luxury fashion retailers all on one city block, and with plenty of pay-lot parking. Jimmy Choo, Bvlgari, Dior, Tiffany & Co, Barney's New York CO-OP, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, & Cartier.
Although the focus here is on major global retailers, there are a couple non-chain stores of note:
World Market
An odd large store which is a ton of fun to browse, offering all things international, from offbeat home decor, wines, teas, toys, and candies!
Other
Carbon
One of the city's best bets for very stylish but understated shoewear women's and men's, with a selection unusually large for a local boutique.
Full of Beans
Upscale baby boutique with tiny clothes, toys, and accessories.
Politics & Prose
This is a quite possibly the city's favorite independent bookstore, with a non-exclusive focus on politics, and frequent, excellent lectures. It is far off the beaten path, about a mile north of the Van Ness-UDC Metro Station, but it's a rewarding destination.
Tempo Bookstore
This is a bookstore wholly dedicated to language resources: language learning books, software, linguistics texts, teaching tools, etc. A great place for philology nerds.
Transcendence-Perfection-Bliss of the Beyond
A toy store with a selection of unique items, and quite the wild name.
Catch Can
A local women's clothing boutique specializing in natural fibers. They also have a range of other good gift buys like bath products, home decor, jewelry, etc. It's pricey, but the quality is very high.