Top 10 best international cities for shopping

by Melanie Nayer on

It’s a familiar feeling… The sweaty palms, a racing heartbeat, shortness of breath. You’ve dreamt about this moment and it’s finally here – staring you in the face with a come hither look that says, “You know you want me” and the reality is, you do. You fumble for your wallet in the bottomless pit of a bag you carry around and rush toward the “sale” sign you spotted through the endless faces and stores on the street. Nothing will come between you and the latest must-have accessory of the season.

While there’s no better place for fashion stateside than New York or Los Angeles, the rest of the world is just waiting for you to try it on and take it home. If you enjoy a little retail therapy on your vacation, or just need a reason to get out of the country, we’ve compiled the best cities in the world for your next shopping excursion. Now is the time to balance the bank account, then hop a flight and head out to some of these best cities in the world for shopping. Just don’t forget to buy an extra suitcase so you can bring it all home.

1. Rome: From the Via Conditti to the Jewish Quarter, there is nothing a shopper can’t find in this Italian city. Rome is the birthplace of some of the world’s best fashion ideas-turned-labels, and there’s enough variation in budgets to appeal to any traveler. Stay near the Spanish Steps and you’ll only have to walk a few blocks to find the very best in designer brands or haggle over the price of a silk scarf with one of the street vendors. My suggestion: Head into the Ferragamo store on the Via Conditti and buy yourself a new pair of Italian leather gloves. They’re unlike any pair of gloves you’ve tried on in a department store back home, and every time you slip your hands in them you’ll be reminded of Rome.

2. Paris: Mention “Paris” and “shopping” in the same sentence and a girl will go weak in the knees. There are three streets you need to know: The Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Avenue Montaigne, and The Boulevard Saint-Germain. Take a stroll down any or all of these streets and you’re guaranteed to leave with something wrapped beautifully in a designer bag. Paris is the mecca for fashion-forward designers but holds a special place in its heart for the classics like Chanel, Chloe and Dior. If apparel and accessories aren’t your thing, head to Montmartre and visit the Artist’s Square. Shop for original artwork and jewelry, straight from the artists’ hands.

3. Marrakesh: You can rock the kasbah but can you shop the souk? First-timers to Marrakesh will be in shock when they first enter the souk; repeat visitors will be in heaven. It’s one of the most challenging shopping excursions you’ll ever come across, but also the most rewarding. The name of the game here is bargaining. From the silk stalls to the spice racks, negotiations rule the way. Remember: bargaining is a way of life for Moroccans, so don’t be afraid to test out your skills. You’ll likely walk away with a piece of pottery or one-of-a-kind hand-woven Moroccan rug for significantly less than you’d pay for in the states. Word of advice: Before you start shopping, take a moment to take it all in. The souk is one of the most exciting places in the world filled with some of the most exotic scents and spices. Close your eyes, take a deep breathe, inhale the atmosphere, then get shopping!4. Milan: If Rome is the home to some of the world’s best shopping, Milan is where you’ll find designers’ pending debuts. Milan is Rome’s secret weapon – a pleasure seekers paradise dressed in the best fabrics, prints and cuts possible. Catwalks come alive in Milan. Break out your best pair gladiator platforms and strut down the secret alleyways where you’ll find some of fashion’s best kept secrets. You’ll go home with something completely extraordinary and one-of-a-kind… and likely the envy of all your friends at next season’s fashion week.

5. Berlin: The German hot-spot is steadily climbing up the fashion ladder. Typically known for its industrial atmosphere, Berlin is fast becoming the see-and-be-seen art center and welcoming a few more fashion houses to the mix. The best part about shopping in Berlin? Because the designers are so new to the area, the discounts are beyond compare. Take time to walk through lofts and boutiques and you’ll find some of fashion’s hidden gems in the racks at a fraction of the cost.

6. Sydney: This Australian city is quite comparable to New York when it comes to shopping. You can get anything you want in Sydney, you just have to know where to go. Start at the Queen Victoria Building and peruse the 400 shops that range from hand-drawn world maps to designer boutiques and antique stores. If you’re feeling a bit more spendy, head to Castlereagh Street and shop the designer boutiques, or take a spin along Circular Quay for some kitschy items to take back home with you.

7. Hong Kong: Throw away the preconceived notions of Hong Kong as an electronics-only shopping mecca. The gadget-friendly Hong Kong has come a long way in shopping and today offers visitors everything from street markets to mega malls. Pick up anything and everything in Hong Kong, from jade to silk, to the latest electronics and far-out gadgets. The Jade Market in Yau Ma Tai is a must – walk through 400 stalls all laden with the green gem said to symbolize long life and good health.

8. London: No one does fashion quite like London. The UK’s most popular city also features some of the most unique designs. Just look around when you’re out for a stroll – Londeners dress in all sorts of varieties, from regal to conventional to funky and retro. Shop the trendy boutiques of Covent Garden and Marylebone High Street, or shop the stalls of Camden Market and Portobello Market, a haven for antiques and once-owned treasures. Of course, once can’t miss a stop inside the famous Harrods, if nothing else to buy a shopping tote of the same name to carry all your purchases.

9. Buenos Aires: Buenos Aires is home to some of the world’s most beautiful people so it’s only appropriate they wear the most beautiful clothes. So where to the beautiful go when they want to shop? They head downtown, where streets ooze chain stores and retailers waiting to take your pesos. Those with more money to spend head to the upscale neighborhood of Recoleta. Don’t leave Buenos Aires without some leather — the handbags, jackets, shoes and belts are the best leather goods in the world and offered at an excellent value. Remember, the beauty of Buenos Aires isn’t just in what you wear… it’s how you wear it.

10. St. Barths: When most people think of the Caribbean they lose their thoughts to white sand beaches, blue waters and boats. But the French-owned St. Barthélemy (a.k.a. St. Barths) has all these things and more: it’s known as the capital of the Caribbean shopping scene. Thanks to endless duty-free stores, shopping at Dior, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Cartier, and Hermes can be less expensive than if you shopped in the states and, many of items in stock in the Caribbean aren’t available stateside, which makes them unique to your collection.

Travel advisory – beware of “forced shopping” in Hong Kong

by Annie Scott on

Chinese tourists have had enough. According to the Xinhua news agency, “An undated video clip currently circulating on the Internet shows a Hong Kong tour guide allegedly abusing a group of visitors from the Chinese mainland and forcing them to shop, triggering a backlash from the mainland public.”

This statement was made on Saturday in conjunction with the National Tourism Administration of China’s official travel advisory warning their citizens against Hong Kong’s pushy tour guides. Allegedly, some of the tourism agencies are getting kickbacks from the stores where they bring their tours to shop, which drives the tour guides to bully people into shopping. Reuters reports that one 65-year-old man allegedly died after arguing with a tour guide over forced shopping.

This is a scary phenomenon. I know plenty of Americans who can’t walk out of a gift shop without getting something because they “feel bad,” which I think is ridiculous. Still, if your tour guide is the one pressuring you to shop, how completely helpless would you feel? I mean, who wants to get back in the van with the dude who hates you because you didn’t buy anything? Imagine if you were in a strange country and your guide was verbally abusing you. I mean … come on. That’s terrible.

Furthermore, the tour guide is often your ride back from wherever you are, so walking away isn’t always an option. If this kind of bullying happens to you, report the incident to your nearest American embassy. To reach “emergency assistance to Americans in foreign countries,” call 202-501-4444 (seriously, program that into your phone).

[Photo credit: youngsixta]

Daily Pampering: Boston shopping spree with the Four Seasons Boston

by Melanie Nayer on

The words “shopping spree” send shivers up my spine. What’s better than someone handing over discount cards to some of the most elite boutiques in Boston, headlined with clothes from some of the world’s most sought-out designers? Nothing, unless you couple it with a night at The Four Seasons.

The Four Seasons clearly heard my charge cards *ching* and created this ultimate shopping package for Boston guests: A Shop Boston Package that gives discounts at over 117 Boston retailers and galleries. Fashionistas rejoice! Today’s Daily Pampering is straight out of a shopaholics dream.The Shop Boston package at the Four Seasons Hotel Boston includes the following discounts:

  • Brooks Brothers – 15% off
  • Cole Haan – 20% off
  • Cynthia Rowley – 20% off
  • Donna Karan – 25% off
  • Jacadi – 10% off
  • La Perla – 15% off
  • Longchamp – 10% off
  • Nanette Lepore – 20% off
  • St. John – $200 off a purchase of $1,000 or more
  • Ted Baker – 15% off PRUferred Shopper Card, valid for special discounts at stores and restaurants within The Shops at Prudential Center.

In addition, you’ll get a night’s accommodation in the posh hotel, complete with a Four Seasons Hotel Boston tote bag filled with all the essentials for a day (or two) of shopping including bottled water, chocolates and yogurt-covered pretzels – because every shopper knows that sustenance is key to a successful shopping day.

The cost of the package ranges from $475 a night to $850 a night, depending on your room choice.

Want more? Get your dose of Daily Pampering right here.

Bargain hunting in Madrid’s famous Rastro market

by Sean McLachlan on


Shopping is a fun part of any trip, yet sometimes it’s hard to find something truly unique, something that tells a bit about the culture but stands out from what 10,000 other tourists bought that year. Finding a good souvenir can be a real problem.

In Madrid, you’ll never have that problem. At El Rastro, a giant open-air market that happens every Sunday from about 7am to 2:30pm, you can find pretty much anything. Part swap meet, part flea market, part bargain emporium for cheap imports, El Rastro has something for everyone, and piles of things you’d think nobody would ever buy.

Take this fish-shaped candle holder, for example. It’s hard to imagine someone taking this home, but it’s got a certain lure that made me almost cave in, because it’s so bizarre it deserves a home. Then there’s that collection of door locks behind it. The box contains about thirty of them, and only one still has its key. Is there a market for locks with no key? I do know someone who collects antique keys, so is this just the flip side? Do these people meet somewhere and try to reunite old locks with their long-lost keys?

It’s hard to get out of El Rastro without buying something and just the experience of wandering through the crowd looking at all the cultural detritus is a great way to learn about Spain. El Rastro has been voted by Gadling as one of the ten great markets of the world. Gadling also named it as one of the top ten places to have your pocket picked, so be careful. Madrid’s pickpockets are some of the best in the world, and they loooooove El Rastro.

Armed with a camera, a small amount of cash stuffed deep into a buttoned-down pocket, and no other valuables whatsoever, I headed out to explore, accompanied by Madrid’s leading ghost story writer. Somehow that felt appropriate.

%Gallery-96401%The most popular way for madrileños to visit El Rastro is to go to Metro stop Tirso de Molina and head downhill. This Sunday the square was filled with communist, socialist, and anarchist tables selling mementos of Spain’s Second Republic, as well as books, punk CDs, and lots of pins, stickers, patches, etc. to help you flash your leftist identity. Working our way downhill we ran a gauntlet of cheap imported kitchenware, tools, jeans, and heavy metal t-shirts. Not a bad hunting ground if you need to pick up some disposable clothes to wear on your trip, but nothing that really screams “Spain.” Except for the Chinese-made and very flammable-looking flamenco costumes for little girls.

El Rastro has no core and no real boundaries. Stalls sprawl along side streets and antique/junk shops line both sides of some avenues. Our path was the usual madrileño meander with no set course except a general direction downhill. The further you go down, the more interesting it becomes. Soon the open-air Walmart is replaced by sketches by local artists, handmade crafts, dusty old toys, and tattered movie posters. A circle of old men rummaged through a table of battered VHS tapes. A long table filled with old carpenter’s tools tempted for DIY fans. People selling stamp collections stood next to stalls piled high with used porn and old martial arts magazines.

The pop culture stuff is some of the most interesting. Here you can see what those old men with the VHS tapes consumed when they were kids–comic books with gaudy covers, Mexican pulp novels, and pennants for half-forgotten football (soccer) championships. There’s something very revealing about rummaging through another culture’s nostalgia. Forty years ago Spain was a fascist dictatorship with a struggling economy. Yet Spain was still Spain, and people liked to have a good time. The paper might be cheap, the print a bit blurry, but I could imagine Spanish kids devouring the latest issue of Coyote or Esther as eagerly as we read Superman or Archie. Come summer they’d head to the beach blaring Spanish pop music on that bright green plastic transistor radio, kicking that old soccer ball in the days when it was still inflated.

Now we had reached the bottom of the hill, where some real antiques (and a whole lot of junk) was being peddled. A cluster of stalls did a brisk trade selling ten year-old laptops with cigarette burns, rickety old chairs, and a collection of fine mirrors and glassware that had graced a some stately home a century ago but now were in desperate need of some love and attention. Every price is open to haggling. The prices for cheaper stuff tend to be less flexible, but it’s always worth a try and haggling is part of the fun. Some people get quite animated, showing Spain’s Arab heritage. At times it felt like I was in the bazaar of Cairo or Damascus.

So what did we buy? Remarkably neither of us spent more than 12 euros ($15), although we could have easily spent ten times that.

Me:
A collection of three classic films on DVD that was originally part of a newspaper promotion
La sangrientas battallas de Montecasino (part of a WWII series that came every week in a newspaper back in the Eighties)
Buffalo Bill contra Los Fumadores de Opio (a translation of an c.1900 American dime novel, translated & reprinted c.1930)
An imitation Zippo adorned with a symbol of the Spanish Republic

Andrew:
Two dirty old lampshades he plans to use for an art project.

What better way to spend a lazy Sunday morning?

New shop alert: Fort Greene’s Feliz

by Alex Robertson Textor on

The sparklingly new Feliz (185 DeKalb Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-797-1211) is Fort Greene’s latest home furnishings shop. Fort Greene, a National Register of Historic Places-listed neighborhood in Brooklyn, is a popular neighborhood of classic brownstones, good restaurants, and strong arts facilities.

Owner Genevieve Platt opened Feliz on May 15. The shop is so new that there isn’t even a sign outside announcing the shop’s name yet. Inside, Platt has curated a comfortable collection of objects that nods gently to South America, the Middle East, and down-home Americana.

The collection is folksy and imaginative. “I call it a variety store because I’m not good at classifying things. We sell everything from fish plates to sandals,” says Platt, adding: “I’m sure the collection will evolve over time.” Her objectives are simple. She seeks to stock her shop with attractive, well-made, affordable, and functional items, avoiding knick-knackery that will just gather dust on forgotten shelves.

Some of the best items are the least expected, like the shelf of yerba maté from Argentina and Uruguay or the collective-produced Senegalese baskets from Fair Trade Federation member Swahili Imports.

Other standouts include piles of cottage industry-crafted espadrilles from Spain’s La Rioja region and vintage American kitchen and dining products. Some of the latter are quite whimsical, and include a butter mold and a tea bag holder that looks like it is part of an antique chemistry set.

Beyond these, there’s a deep collection of other highly useable objects throughout: Tocca‘s bath and body beauty line products, cards, books, contemporary jewelry by local artist Naaima Z, candles, candle holders, and incense. A few items are produced in-house, as well: some beautiful pillows (raw silk and denim) and refurbished furniture.

Platt, who has lived in the neighborhood for ten years, hopes that Feliz will be the sort of shop that everyone in the neighborhood will feel comfortable visiting. She’s off to a good start.

Yu Interiors, with its outstanding mix of vintage modernist and smart new items, is located just two blocks away. With two carefully selected home furnishings shops in close proximity, this Fort Greene microhood (what would it be called? GreLaDe?) is slowly strengthening its home furnishings credentials.