Shopping Abroad
I travel a lot. It’s sort of par for the course. I buy clothes for my boutique, and seeing as I carry up and coming designers from around the world, well that means I travel a lot. I know. I’m supposed to be in the store taking care of clients. That’s the hard part. How do you bring back clothes especially for clients when you have to be out there buying for them on a constant basis? Well, it’s a tricky balancing act. One I haven’t quite figured out. But that’s not your problem. Your problem is what to do when YOU’RE traveling and you want to shop. And here’s MY advice:
There are two sources that I use to scout out new stores and find the latest and the greatest in clothing and that I couldn’t live without: one is Superfuture.com, and the other is the Luxe City Guides. I don’t know what I’d do without them.
First – Superfuture. The main cities they cover are Tokyo, New York, Sydney, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Singapore. Each city is built like a little map, and then broken down into neighborhoods. You can either click on each neighborhood to find a list of its stores, or you can click on the master shoplist and find all of the stores in the city. And when I say all, I mean ALL. They don’t just list Barneys and Neimans, they list Kirna Zabete and Via Bus Stop. And then when you click on the name of each store, they give you a detailed bio. For example, Kirna Zabete:
KIRNA ZABETE
| city | new york |
| area | soho |
| description | modernist materialist mecca > the shangri-la of shopping > divine fashion intervention > the mini-mall of mod. |
| products | whatever is hot this season, everything is super groovy…. womens day > evening > jewelry > accessories > fragrances > baby > dog |
| clientele | super stylish with loads of cash [lube your card darling] |
| service | smart and modern |
| interior | nick dine designed this space. super cool. white walls off-set with lavender resin floor, cool nick dine chairs, just think space station 2025 [one day all stores will look like this] |
| ambiance | >> the saccarine-free supermarket of style << |
| address | 96 green street – new york – ny 10012 |
| telephone | +1 212 9419656 |
| website | http://www.kirnazabete.com |
They really get down to the nitty gritty and make all necessary information available to you – meaning it’s super easy to plan a trip in advance. You can figure out places you HAVE to visit, and then check the places you’d LIKE to visit, and then mark off places you might have TIME to visit… Superfuture has saved me in a number of pinches, and I’m glad too say I’m in super love with it.
Then there are the Luxe City Guides. These cover broader regions like the USA, Australia, China, Europe, Middle East, North Asia, Thailand, and South East Asia. So they’re not quite as specific as Superfuture. But they’re still a modern girl’s guide to what’s hot and what’s not, and they’ll save you if you don’t know where to stay in say, Bangkok? They also come out with online updates throughout the year – super handy if, say, your hotel in Bangkok has gone out of business just before your trip.
The great thing about the Luxe guides is that they’re written by people who actually live in the cities being written about – so you get secrets other publications would never know about. Then the locations are double checked, first by a resident city editor, then by the Luxe publisher, so you’re pretty much guaranteed anything in the guide is fabulous.
But fabulous can sometimes be pricey, and that always brings me back to Superfuture which is a free online service. As long as you’re willing to do the work – searching through all of the names and places and deciding what looks hot and what does not, well you’ve got your trip made.
Distilled from my many trips to Tokyo (my favorite city), I keep my little Superfuture list handy at all times, and there are a number of must see stores that I always recommend. (Just remember, stores are always going in and out of business so check Superfuture first to make sure these stores are still around before planning your trip!)
Loveless
My absolute favorite, local and high end designers in an underground store with blaring music and a coffee bar.
1-24-3 minami-aoyama – tokyo 107-006
+81 3 54745934
Via Bus Stop
Classy with very hard to find avante garde designers.
28-14 sarugakucho – shibuya-ku – tokyo 150-0033
+81 3 54591567
Dress Camp
Tokyo’s hottest up and coming designer du jour.
F 5-5-1 minami-aoyama minato-ku tokyo 107-0062
Undercover
Fabulous on par with Watanabe and Garcons just not as well known.
5-3-18 minami-aoyama minato-ku 107-0062
+81 3 3407 1232
La Foret
Wonder where all of those goth girls and baby dolls get their oufits? Right here in seven stories of fabulous kitsch.
1-11-6 jingumae – shibuya-ku – tokyo 150-0001
+81 3 34750411
Hysteric Glamour
Yes, we all know and love / hate, but it’s a must stop anyway.
6-23-2 jingumae – shibuya-ku – tokyo 150-0001
+81 3 34097227
Color By Numbers
Similar to Loveless but without the atmosphere.
20-23 daikanyama-cho, shuibu-ku 150-0034
+81 3 3770 1991
Restir
Tokyo’s super high-end snobby store. Don’t go in unless you have the confidence of a movie star. It only makes my list because I have to stay on top of ALL the trends.
4-2-2 ginza – chuo-ku – tokyo 104-0061
+81 3 51590595
Somarta
Tokyo’s legendary hot hot hot line. Combines body stockings with brass armor. Only in Tokyo.
H 1-0-2 minato-ku, tokyo 107-6021
+81 3 5413 3708
Hiroko Koshino
Japanese fashion legend – has been designing for over 50 years and is now considered among Japanese royalty.
5-4-40, minami-aoyama minato-ku tokyo 107-0062
Tel. 03 5778 9237
