SHOP is your guide to boutique fashion and retail in Sydney, featuring pop-up shops and other places that are so hard to find that Google doesn't even know about them yet. SHOP attempts to open your minds, hearts and wallets to the plethora of things that you can probably live without but in actuality don't want to. Clothes, jewellery, books, bikes, bags, shoes, bags that look like shoes - SHOP gives new meaning to the superficial - wait, we're confused.
I assumed men like convenient, calm shopping. I asked one. He agreed. So if you generated a fit out with newsagent-style practicality and a 20th Century modern lounge room sensibility you're set, right?
Curtained by vines and suitably hidden on Darlinghurt's Darley Street, One of a Kind is just this.
In recent years, I have become increasingly aware of my flagrant desire to consume. Books, records, clothes, inanimate objects for the home - you name it, I'll buy it. Coupled with this deep-seated compulsion is a pervasive and irreconcilable inner turmoil, consisting equally of endless moral justification and serious financial woe.
Hello gifters! Feel like buying us a treat? We know, we know, we're so hard to shop for these days. That's why we thought we'd give you a helping hand. Head to one of the spots below and even if you don't go for our specific gift suggestion (we're looking at you, mum), chances are we'll love it.
Shop 1: Mr Fothergill's
Ideal gift: Pots of basil, cherry tomatoes or strawberries.
As its name so gently insinuates, this is a shop for men. Interestingly then, there was not one man in the store when I visited, and rather a lot of women. After I ferreted about for a while, the reason for this became clear. This is a gifting shop, not a shop-shop. It's an absolute mecca if you're looking for presents for the oestrogen challenged.
Centuries of radical concepts and invention have gifted mankind with a veritable panorama of high tech tools - the cassette wallet, the scratchie card and the affirmative dish. The Finders Keepers independent design and art market offers a highly filtered scattering of such things.
Here you may make irregular choices - like putting ideas before price and conversation before wine - all while digesting the local live sound, two fashion rooms and a new featured artist space.
I once dreamt that I caught a shooting star, which was nice and all, but what I really want is an underwater dream. I bet they're loaded with meaning. You know, really deep. Never mind, as Romance Was Born are opening an oceanic concept store, Pearl's Dream, to follow on from their most recent collection, 'Doilies and Pearls, Oysters and Shells'.
As I walk into Carhartt, I'm greeted by Dylan's Masters of War and a friendly sales assistant with a broken arm. "A skating accident," I'm told. It's a nice juxtaposition; a skate-wear shop inspired equally by sixties folk and half pipes.
Indeed, from its wooden floors to clean, unpretentious stock, Carhartt is more refined than your average skate store.
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