Barcelona's Boutiques by Matt Morley
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While the city has a comparatively low-key reputation abroad for its fashion designers, within Spain at least, it has been shouting loudly from the rooftops for several years now.
Thanks to a handful of key central arteries, a sensible street layout and, unmistakeably, the Mediterranean Sea at one end, it is never hard to orientate oneself whilst here. The flipside of this is that the tourist-friendly La Ramblas and its more upmarket neighbour Passeig de Gracia are permanently packed with Gaudi-hungry visitors and overtly casual shoppers.
Equally, more informed retail junkies need make only the most simple of deviations to be rewarded with a whole host of fashion stores lying mercifully off the tourist-trail. Running the gamut from innovative-verging-on-unwearable, to the conservative hi-luxe more readily associated with Madrid, Barcelona’s shops have something for every luxury lover; provided they know where to go.
Avenida Diagonal is a long, tree-lined boulevard off Passeig de Gracia with enough upmarket boutiques to warrant several hours of sun-drenched perambulation. At number 469 lies the glamorous Jean Pierre Bua store stocking all the latest mens and ladies ranges from Dolce & Gabbana, Tom Ford, Dries Van Noten and the like.
It is next door however, in the newly opened Jean Pierre Symbol store, where the most exciting names are to be found. Three floors of individually chosen pieces (rather than entire collections) are aimed at an urban yet sophisticated customer. Even the cocktail dress section is overflowing with creative ideas from designers such as Rick Owens, Karl Lagerfeld and Jean Paul Gaultier.
With its interior design references to the Parisian metro, bold use of gold wall tiling and impressively high ceilings, this is an immediately appealing space in which to part with some serious Euros.
For something even more edgy and alternative though, the area to head for is El Born to the south. This slightly rundown, artistic zone is where small-scale and deliberately ‘underground’ brands have found their natural home.
Buried in amongst them all is Barcelona’s answer to Colette in Paris, Corso Como 10 in Milano and Dover Street Market in London: the Lobby concept store. Exposed brick walls, plenty of ‘de-constructed’ clothes and some truly obscure designers reveal this to be somewhere that takes its avant-garde persona very seriously indeed.
The ground floor houses a carefully curated selection of perfumes, candles, cosmetics, notebooks, magazines and super-chic sex toys, all with that recherché, limited edition feel that concept stores are so good at.
On the lower ground level, the range spans from the latest Alexander McQueen trainers, through Yoji Yamamoto and a host of other Japanese clothes designers, into the stars of Catalan and Spanish pret-a-porter fashion.
Every item seemingly has a story to tell and a slow amble along Lobby’s overflowing clothes rails for both men and women serves as a solid introduction to the trends to watch out for in 2008. And we can’t think of a better recommendation than that.
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