At the crossroads of tradition and modernism, over the last decade or so New Canaan has grown a reputation as a destination for home design, décor, and style. Designers, retailers, and shoppers will be out to celebrate Thursday night with the second annual Design District event.

Three new stores—Comina, Mason and Boxwood Home & Interiors—have recently joined the downtown district, boosting the total number of design shops to about a dozen and injecting the local industry with a new boost of energy.

"We've had wonderful design stores come into New Canaan despite the fact that it's been a very challenging time," said Rita Kirby a member of the New Canaan Alliance for Business Professionals and a realtor with William Pitt Sotheby's.

"This is my take: it started about 10 or 12 years ago when we became a destination for antique shops, really fine ones. We've always had a few, but then we had more. It was coupled with a few very fine consignment shops," said Kirby. "This became a place where people were coming to augment their household furnishings and for sophisticated gifts. That was the precursor to what we're seeing now."

The owners of Comina are from Connecticut and knew they wanted to open their ninth store here in town. The shop, which sells unusual, often hand-made products from around the world opened in October 2009.

"The owners been looking at New Canaan for a while. They like the small-town feeling, and the way the whole town of New Canaan is set up. It's conducive to our shop," said Deirdre Mannix, manager of Comina. "I think people are going away from big box and chain stores.  There's something about walking around this little town. It's so pretty and quaint."

Greenwich, maybe a more obvious location for high-end design stores, wasn't a good fit for Comina, which is drawing customers from as far away as Rhode Island. "Greenwich is more impersonal," said Mannix. "New Canaan has more individual owners and it's more personalized."

For Mason, a mid-century design store which opened in November on Elm Street, New Canaan was a no-brainer as the location for their new business. New Canaan is the home of the modernist "Harvard Five" architects, which include Philip Johnson, Marcel Breuer and Eliot Noyes, and has more than its share of contemporary dwellings.

"We are the epicenter of mid-century modernism," said Kirby. "There's no question that if you're interested in modern, New Canaan is the first place you look."

"New Canaan is nationally recognized for its modern architecture. For such a small town, it's pretty remarkable," said Courtney Mason, partner of Mason. "So to not have any retail venture of that style—it was about time."

"New Canaan is a blooming design hub," said Mason, whose store is drawing shoppers and designers from Greenwich, Pound Ridge and New York City. "All of these new stores have opened in the past year – Boxwood and Comina. I think it's really the beginning of something new."

Trend is the word Rita Kirby would use to describe what's happening in New Canaan's shopping district. "I love the other towns, but we have a very sophisticated range of tastes for modernism," said Kirby. "We have something going on in New Canaan. It starts here and it draws people."

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The Design District event, organized by AtHome magazine, will be held downtown on Thursday, April 29 at participating stores from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. All proceeds benefit the New Canaan Community Foundation.