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Unique Boutiques
www.uniqueboutiquesblog.com
20
Shining a light on the most original independent shops in the world's best cities
#65664 in All , #150 in Shopping

The blog’s first birthday. A competition.

Wow. It’s already been a whole year since I set out to tell the stories of original, one-off independent shops from around the world. Thanks to each and every one of you for reading the blog a...

30 aug 11 2 people like this

Unicorn. Montréal’s antidote to global fashion chains

Unicorn. 5135 Boulevard St. Laurent, Montréal, Québec. +1 (514) 544-2828 Once upon a time, people designed and made stuff with their own hands. Merchants sold the work of artisans in their local sh...

12 jul 11 1 person likes this

Cocoa Locale. The ‘cake boutique’ that’s a one-woman show.

Cocoa Locale. 4807 Avenue du Parc, Montréal, Québec. +1 (514) 271-7162 Cocoa Locale is no cupcake shop. It’s not a bakery that churns things out for other businesses. Nor is it a cafe. It&#...

13 may 11 3 people like this

El Titan de Bronze. A mom and pop cigar shop.

El Titan de Bronze, 1071 SW 8th Street, Miami 33130 I’d never been to Miami’s ‘Little Havana’ before, sticking instead to the art deco strip of South Beach and its glitzy, mostly bi...

25 mar 11 1 person likes this

Shakespeare and Company. A bookshop with a story of its own.

Shakespeare and Company. 37 rue de la Bûcherie, 75005 Paris Let me tell you a story. A perfectly circular one, shaped by fate. There once was an American woman called Sylvia Beach. She was studyin...

02 mar 11 2 people like this

Petersham Nurseries. London’s glamorous garden centre.

Petersham Nurseries, Church Lane, off Petersham Road, Richmond, TW10 7AG. Glamorous and garden. Not words that normally go together. But Petersham Nurseries, a place “garden centre” does...

28 jan 11 1 person likes this

London’s (Secret?) Garden. Petersham Nurseries.

Petersham Nurseries, Church Lane, off Petersham Road, Richmond, TW10 7AG. It took me a long time to find out about Petersham Nurseries. Perhaps because it is relatively new? Or because it’s l...

24 dec 10 1 person likes this

“Who gives a **** about an Oxford Comma” a guest post by Badaude

Oxford Comma, 247 Iffley Road, Oxford, OX4 1SJ. And find Badaude’s blog here. Sally and David Emery do. This month they opened a design shop on an up-and-coming corner of Oxford’s Iffle...

02 dec 10

Autour du Bain. A gem in Geneva’s artists’ quarter

Autour du Bain, 12 Rue St-Joseph, 1227 Carouge, Genève I’ll admit it. Geneva was never my favourite city to visit. My clients were based in there when I worked in advertising, and years of bu...

26 nov 10

Altmann & Kühne. ‘Better to work 10 days on one product than to manufacture 10 products in one day.’

Altmann & Kühne, Innere Stadt, Am Graben 30, 1010 Wien It’s been 12 years since I visited Vienna. I was young, solo, relatively untravelled, proudly sporting a Canadian flag on my backpack...

08 sep 10

Fortnum & Mason. “So nice to be treated like a duchess while one is buying a pound of coffee…”

Fortnum & Mason, 181 Piccadilly, London W1A 1ER If a single shop can embody a country, its history and in some ways its very spirit, Fortnum & Mason is it. A very English company with a very...

20 may 10 2 people like this

Tweet if you love indie shops…

I’m a facebook-phobe, a contributor to the comments pages of lots of blogs and online newspapers under the cowardly name of ‘anonymous’ (I’m getting over that, recently) and y...

12 may 10

Tobias and the Angel — A shop that feels like home. Part Two

Tobias and the Angel, 68 White Hart Lane, Chiswick, London, SW13 0PZ (…continued from last week’s post) At the time of its opening 23 years ago, Tobias and the Angel was smaller than it i...

07 may 10

Tobias and the Angel. A shop that feels like home — Part One

Tobias and the Angel, 68 White Hart Lane, Chiswick, London SW13 0PZ When I interviewed Angel Hughes, owner of the eponymous shop, I forgot to ask her a question. Visiting her shop of 23 years in Chi...

30 apr 10

Welcome to Unique Boutiques - a (long) labour of love.

One rainy weekend, years ago, I was visiting Barcelona for work. Undeterred by the rain, I wanted to shop. I ventured out of my hotel and headed for the main shopping areas suggested by the concierg...

22 apr 10

Labour and Wait. Inspired by a dustpan and brush.

Labour and Wait, 18 Cheshire Street, London E2 6EH Rachel Wythe-Moran and Simon Watkins make a striking pair. They are stylish, but unpretentious; cool without being flashy; empassioned but restraine...

22 apr 10

Coming soon…

Ah, the many inspiring independent shops of Paris that await me… Here are just a few of the Parisian shops I intend to feature one day on UB, please do leave a comment below to suggest more! As...

22 apr 10

Coming soon…

Creative and cool Berlin is an oasis of independent shops. A few I would like to feature on UB include: The Corner. Lifestyle emporium, Franzosische Strasse 40 Emma & Co. Children, Niebuhrstras...

22 apr 10

Coming soon…

One day soon I will have the chance to revisit Barcelona and discover its best unique boutiques, like: Casa Gispert. Food, Carrer Sombrerers 23 Cereria Subira. Candles, Baixada de Llibreteria 7 Herbo...

22 apr 10

Watch this space…

At the moment UB is limited to Europe, but soon I plan to add some wonderful independent shops in North America to the mix. If you have any ideas for shops to feature in the US or Canada, please do ...

22 apr 10

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