Hop To The Shops
Sick of your bog-standard, mall-bound, sterile retail experience? Check out some of the city’s freshest shopping destinations. Go downtown with Johannes Pong and his canvas bags.
Visual Culture Optical
Stylists in town love coming here to get their hands on hipster aviators with leather nose guards and smart retro 1947 Ronsir specs (from US eyewear design pioneer Shuron). Sitting within an old commercial building (that also houses several tucked-away cafés), the Causeway Bay shop is a pure white space (the Kowloon shop is all black) that acts as a blank canvas highlighting all the incredibly cool frames. The mastermind behind Visual Culture laments that most eyewear nowadays are all your humdrum big fashion brand names with not much actual variety in the design, so they make it their mission to offer our city beautiful works of art from old-school eyewear companies that have been making frames for around a century. There are classic geek chic Masunagas from Japan, the MOSCOT originals that Johnny Depp prefers to wear, RetroSuperFuture from Italy and worn by the likes of Gaga and the Beckhams, the legendary Claire Goldsmith from the UK, and Dutch brand Ralph Vaeseen, with elegant structures made of buffalo horn (look ma, no turtle shell!) Vintage glasses are also on sale, as well as Ernst Benz Swiss watches on consignment. Fashionable frames don’t come cheap though—a designer pair will set you back over $10,000, though a similarly cool pair rings in at a more reasonable $2,000.
Flat J, 1/F, Po Foo Building, 1-5 Foo Ming St., Causeway Bay, 3481-0258;
108, 1/F Metro Harbour Plaza, Fou Lee St., Tai Kok Tsui, Kowloon, 2732-2300, www.visualcultureoptical.com.
Forest Bird
The fabulous four-storey boudoir-boutique on Staunton is the brainchild of former architect Ulrike Pohl, who moved into town from Germany last year. Her diverse experiences in architecture and interior design (she established the high-fashion label Hausach Couture), as well as a devoted personal interest in fine, kickass urban art, led to her vision and belief in launching a multi-directional retail concept in our very own SoHo. As Henrik Ibsen, 19th-century Norwegian playwright once declared, “A Forest Bird never wants a cage.” And in Forest Bird, you’ll find creative, cutting-edge fashion, handmade jewelry, exquisite homewares and high-quality beauty products. There’s also an eyelash extension counter and an organic gourmet coffee bar (macarons!) downstairs and gallery space upstairs with a rotating roster of top international artists (managed in collaboration with Berlin’s Circleculture Gallery). The list of specially curated designer brands include Rue du Mail from Paris, Antwerp’s Bruno Pieters, Mongrels in Common from Berlin, Sea and Haute Hippie from New York, and Ryohei Tsukamoto and Aquvii from Tokyo. And we love the unisex beauty products from Austria’s Susanne Kaufmann (no chemical preservatives, mineral oil supplements, artificial coloring or scents).
39 Staunton St., Central, 2810-1166.
Brother & Sister
Downstairs from Gilbert Yeung’s robatayaki hotspot Busy Suzie and Cindy Yeung’s Emperor Jewellery shop on Canton Road lies the siblings’ spacious subterranean fantasy: Brother & Sister. It’s a 2,800 square-foot underground space that oozes modern rock ‘n roll. The invitingly large, plush leather chairs and sofas and the whitewashed accent wall of speakers come via NYC-based Mark Zeff of design consultancy Zeff Design. It’s an ideal place for TST shoppers to relax and recharge, with a slick cocktail bar and a mouth-watering menu of Western fused with Japanese. The vibe here is luxury, street-style: think DL & Co. candles, Aesop and Cowshed bath and body products; eclectic jewellery collections by Justin Davis, Deep Anger, Marielle Byworth and Rock Candy; designer watches from Lip Watch, Nixon, Tiret, Toy watch and U-Boat; sneaker brands including Hong Kong-based Cipher, Dolce & Gabbana, Greedy Genius and Android Homme; and limited edition crossover brands such as cult designer Jeremy Scott for Adidas, Mihara Yasuhiro and Alexander McQueen for Puma. There is also a superb range of rare designer sunglasses including Dita Eyewear and Nathan Jenden, as well as vintage pieces from Guy Laroche and Playboy. Don’t forget the selection of Dragon-i memorabilia such as t-shirts, staff uniforms (!) and CD compilations.
B/F, 1881 Heritage, 2A Canton Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui, 2369-1991, www.brother-n-sister.com.