Shopping in Australia
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Paspaley Pearls
This shell-shaped store sells lustrous pearls farmed along uninhabited coastline from Darwin to Dampier in Western Australia. Classic and modern designs start at around A$450 for a ring, rising to more than around A$1 million for a hefty strand of perfect pink pearls.
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Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra
The ‘many hands’ art centre is a small gallery and studio for visiting artists from all over Central Australia. Watercolour and dot paintings are reasonably priced and you buy directly from the artists. You can see artists at work from Monday to Thursday, 10am to 3pm.
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Kailis Pearls
If you're looking for lustrous pearls, two pioneering family businesses produce the best quality pearls in the most stunning settings. Having established Broome's first underwater pearl farm on a Roebuck Bay seabed, Kailis Pearls creates elegant understated designs.
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Grandma Takes a Trip, Bondi
We don’t know where Granny’s gone (or how much LSD she had), but she sure left a crazy wardrobe behind. And so did Grandpa. Sourced mostly in the UK and overseas, this is mint-condition vintage, plus retro swimwear and the odd bit of flouncy negligee.
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Zabriskie Booksellers
Do bushy-bushy blonde surfies read books? If the crowds at Zabriskie’s are anything to go by, the answer must be yes. This tiny cultural oasis in Bondi’s literary desert has more books than space – staff scramble up ladders to the top shelves.
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Cyberia
Cyberia ups the designer anti. Basics – jeans, jumpers and tees – are anything but average and share the racks with edgy, glamorous frocks. There’s sunglasses and jewellery, and the odd pair of screen-printed undies. Not for shrinking violets.
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Dirt Cheap CDs
Missing that hard-to-find fifth Flaming Lips CD, or has your LP of Rolling Stones' Goat's Head Soup finally given up the ghost? This is the place for brand new back-catalogue CDs, most priced around A$10. There's also a branch at 238 Pitt St in the city.
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Fool
Long-time Greville St resident Rowena Doolan designs practical (though never boring) wearables in compelling rainbow colours. Her winter collections of cable knits and warming wide scarves are particularly strong and well suited to Melbourne’s chilly days.
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Egg Records
There’s something a bit too cool about this secondhand and new music store, but it’s the perfect place to, say, complete your collection of 1980s David Bowie 12-inch singles, or pick up a Cramps T-shirt or a Gene Simmons figurine.
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Blue Spinach
High-end consignment clothing for penny-pinching label lovers of all genders. If you can make it beyond the shocking blue facade (shocking doesn’t really do it justice), you’ll find Paul Smith and Gucci at (relatively) bargain prices.
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Mill & Mia
Melbourne’s Mill & Mia dresses babes to six-year-olds in sweet cotton frocks, denim and stripy tees, chunky but soft knits. Its stylish bed linen is a world away from evil teds and TV characters: instead a delicate floral here, a woodsy motif there.
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Order & Progress
Brazilian cool of the dressed-up rather than kit-off kind. Latin labels such as Alexandre Herchcovitch and Maria Bonita Extra are joined by Eley Kishimoto, Katherine Hamnet and cult Scots, Folk. Girls with a nostalgia for jelly-sandals will find them here too.
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Lesley McKay's Bookshop
This independent bookseller stocks an excellent range of fiction, biography and history titles. There's an especially good selection of children's books, too, and the knowledgable staff won't let you down.
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Verne Jewels
With an exquisite eye and a wry sense of history, Nicholas Bullough (no, he’s not Verne, that’s a joke – Jules Verne, get it?) assembles the artefacts, stones, pearls and gems he buys around the world and comes up with winners every time.
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Don’t Come
Yes, do. The shop’s parent label Schwipe is known for its highly provocative, sharply graphic, street-savvy T-shirts. Kanye West and the LCD Soundsystem popped in and seemed to like them that way. (If you’re lost, look for the pink Marais sign.)
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Quick Brown Fox, Newtown
No lazy dogs here – just plenty of fast-looking, tanned vixens snapping up a range of funky vintage fashions that veers from ‘hello, boys!’ cuteness to indecent-exposure sexiness. Catchy patterns and fabrics, plus very hip boots and bags.
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Somebuddy Loves You
Announced by the sneaker-draped power lines on neighbouring Charles St, Buddy does local variations on the global hipster theme: ironic T-shirts, cult-brand jeans, scenester-in-training babywear and kidult toys. Their stock always has some pleasant surprises.
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Alannah Hill
Step into this fun, fruity palace of fancy, where flirty, frilly, flimsy fabrics are made into chocolate-box dresses and bordello-style boudoir ornaments. Loud music helps fluffy chicks forget about their credit card bills as temptation knows no boundaries...
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Bloch
Dancewear for professional dancers and for those who don’t know a plié from a pas de chat but just like the ballet flat and wraparound cardie look. Bloch’s collection of dance-themed bits and bobs will please little ballerinas too.
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Kay Craddock Antiquarian Bookseller
In the basement of a neogothic building, Kay Craddock has an impressive collection of antiquarian and secondhand books, from the 15th to the 21st centuries. There’s a hoard of local curiosities as well intriguing books about books and book-collecting.
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Glebe Markets
The best of the west; Sydney's dreadlocked, shoeless, inner-city contingent beats an aimless course to this crowded hippy-ish market.
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Australian Wine Centre
This multilingual basement store is packed with quality Australian wine, beer and spirits. Pick up some Hunter Valley semillon or organise a shipment back home. Healthy wallets can access Cuban cigars and a staggering range of prestigious Penfolds Grange wines.
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Queen
One of a number of independent clothing stores in the immediate area, Queen offers a range of bags, jewellery and clothes that you won't see on the backs of every second person you pass. The store has its own label but also stocks other Melbourne designers.
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Macphee’s for the Wine Enthusiast
This shop is the retail arm of one of Melbourne’s largest private cellaring outfits. It stocks a huge range of top-quality stemware, decanters and other vinous accessories such as corkscrews. There’s also a good selection of reference books for wine buffs.
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Opera House Market
Under big, cream umbrellas and Opera House arcs, elbow for position in the hunt for high-quality contemporary Australian ceramics, gems, toys, jewellery, hats, paintings, photographs and souvenirs. If the 40 stalls don't satisfy, just dig the architecture.
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