Cool Hunting
Paris and Milan may get all the Euro credit, but with gorgeous architecture from Gothic to Modernisme, scores of sleek furniture and interior design shops, and a mind-bending array of fashion boutiques, Barcelona is surely the sleeper style capital of the continent. Refinery29 paid a recent visit and compiled a list of the best of El Born.
RqueR
Talk about pride: Conxa Jufresa's shop stocks almost exclusively Spanish designers, many of them Catalan. Her handpicked roster includes new notables like Syvilla, Sita Murt, David Valls, Viviana Uribe, Madre Mia, Juan Pedro Lopez, and Victorio & Lucchino. If you're looking for local talent, this is the place to come.
Carrer del Rec 75
tel. +34 93 315 23 91
Mercado
Much more than your run-of-the-mill high-streetwear shop, Victor Zabrockis's boutique and gallery (pictured below left) carries an unparalleled selection of designer books, urban art, chic homewares and impossible-to-find-elsewhere T-shirts—all tied together with an Amazonian canoe centerpiece.
Plaza Comercial 3
tel. +34 93 268 86 31
Ague del Carmen
Started in 2000 by friends Rona Milián and Carmen Bautista, Agua del Carmen features lots of wools and wovens, '60s patterns, and retro-styled skirts in a sober palette of wine, moss, and peach. This is what Carol Brady might have worn if she hit the wacky-tobaccy. A nice play on eveningwear fills out the mostly-casual collection. (Pictured right.)
Carrer Bonaire 5
tel. +34 93 268 77 99
Iguapop Shop and Gallery
This U-shaped whitebox space combines an up-to-the-minute urban art gallery on one side, and a streetwear shop on the other. The gallery is one of the focal points of BCN's bursting street-art scene; dig on the exhibition catalog—it would turn Deitch green. (Pictured below left.)
Carrer Comerç, 15
tel. +34 93 268 77 99
Petra
Duck into this deep-blue frontage and you will find a modded-up menu of neo-Basque fare. The gnocchi with crab sauce is sublime, and the unctuous pink gazpacho—with a ball of cucumber sorbet in the center—will drive you back for the rest of your stay.
Carrer Sombrerers 13
tel. +34 93 319 99 99
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