Shopping
Your guide to Sydney's best markets, boutiques and high street shopping
The best homewares shops in Sydney
Make that tiny city apartment feel like home with smart functional designs from one of these top design and interiors stores, or go all-out and fill your new beach house with Australian-made furniture or globally sourced homewares.
Ethical shopping in Sydney
It’s not easy to shop ethically, but we’ve found a handful of local businesses that are putting people, animals and the environment first.
The best vintage shops in Sydney
Get all dressed up in frocks from the 1950s, flares from the swinging sixties and super trendy smocks from the ’70s.
The best antique shops in Sydney
For everyone from Mad Men obsessives to pre-Federation fans, these antiques shops and homewares stores prefer the pre-loved.
Shopping guides
This week's best shopping events
Find the best warehouse sales and markets taking place this weekend, plus one-off shopping events. If you're looking for last-minute gifts, check out our gift guide or list of the best boutique florists.
Shopping in Manly
There's more to Manly than the beach and the bars (although both of those things come highly recommended). When you wander off the Northern Beaches' suburbs well-trod mainstreet, you'll find a growing number of independent boutiques, antique stores and other knick knack sellers, as well as killer spots to pick out a sun hat or cossi to wear back out onto the Corso.
The best boutique florists in Sydney
We’ve picked out our favourite florists, who put together bunches of bloomin’ marvellous buds, from dramatic and sculptural arrangements to subtle and natural bouquets.
Sydney’s best picnic hampers
When you want to take your picnic to the next level, call in one of the experts. These four Sydney companies will prepare a delicious hamper of fresh salads, sandwiches, wraps and snacks for you. All you have to do is to decide where to take it (and who to invite to the party).
The best chocolate shops in Sydney
Looking for a perfectly delicious gift? Or a night's supply for a serious splurge? These top shops will satisfy the world's most famous craving.
Shoppers' guide to South King Street
Next time you’re in Newtown, do yourself a favour: head straight past the train station and right to South King Street. This section of the inner west suburb strip has long been overshadowed by its busier northern end, but your jaunt will be rewarded with quirky vintage finds, ethical shopping choices and authentic craftsmanship that seems all that much harder to find these days.
Health and beauty in Sydney
The best spas in Sydney
Whether you want hardcore results, or just a bit of chill time, Sydney's palaces of self-rejuvenation have you covered. So book it, bring a magazine and prepare to bliss out.
The best nail artists in Sydney
Nail art has flourished from a DIY underground affair right into mainstream salons. Miss Lauren LaRouge is one of Sydney’s most in-demand nail artists, dazzling the digits of Sydneysiders who are looking to turn their nail beds into miniature canvases. “People think it’s this crazy over-the-top thing, but once people try it – even starting with a feature nail – they usually get hooked,” says Miss LaRouge, while painting pastel pink polka dots and leopard spots on Time Out's claws.A trip to Japan originally piqued Miss LaRouge’s interest in nail artistry, and on her return home she started using herself has a mani mannequin. “I did a course in Sydney, which was great for hygiene, acrylics, but nail art is just one small component, so I taught myself a lot and practiced on myself.” Lauren’s background in burlesque dancing – she’s an MC and ukulele-player over at Oxford Street’s Slide – dovetailed neatly with her newfound passion. “I used to add things to my costumes, bling them up and embellish them. I then took this to my nails.” This soon enough spread to the hands of friends and family, before she made the big jump and quit her office job to pursue her passion full time.Rather than the production-line set-up that many salons employ, Lauren ensures her little corner at Indulge Studios is one filled with sass, colour and solid client banter. “A beautician once told me that I shouldn’t bother getting into nail art and that the industry was dead, but I want to put the love back
The best bargain haircuts in Sydney
Need a quick fix to that unruly mop? These student hairdressing centres and colleges offer hair cuts for next to nix. You’ll need to be available at unpopular times, like during the working week, but the money saved could equal more beers at the pub with your mates. That’s a trade off we can shake on.
The best barbershops in Sydney
Finding the right barber can be a lifelong search — ask any man who’s had too much or not enough of his locks cavalierly lopped off and stepped out onto the street disaffected. Thankfully, there are experts in this area who excel in getting the discerning man’s ‘do’ just right. Here, some of Sydney’s best barbers are recommended.
The best tailors in Sydney
There are seemingly limitless options in menswear today, thanks in no small part to fast fashion and e-commerce. Still, there’s nothing like a garment perfectly fitted to the individual’s body and reflective of their personal style, like a bespoke or tailored suit for special occasions, dinners, and meetings (or just for fun). Thankfully, a handful of tailors in Sydney still practice their time-honoured craft, while a number of businesses offer high-quality bespoke suits for the maximum in comfort and refinement for men of exacting standards.
You might also like...
Sydney's local favourites
Stellar service and optimum convenience is the order of the day at these local favourites. It doesn't matter if you're ducking in for a quick fix solution, or you don't even know what you're looking for, they're going to help out. And when it comes to the cash register, they're savvy enough to let you pay the way you want to, with no worries and no minimums.
Sunday Tex-Mex Brunch at El Camino Cantina
Tex-Mex food has put zing into café menus Australia-wide. Now Tex-Mex experts El Camino Cantina in the Rocks have a brunch special that will perk up your Sunday like a proverbial jumping bean. From 11am to 2pm every Sunday, $29 gets you a breakfast item plus unlimited beverages (Bloody Marys, Margaritas, draught beer and soft drinks) for an hour. Those brekky selections include a Breakfast Burrito packed with scrambled eggs, chorizo, diced potatoes, bacon and cheese with arugula salad; Huevos Sopes, namely poached eggs on fresh corn and chilli fritters with smoked pork and chipotle hollandaise; and Huevos and Chorizo – build-your-own tacos with flour tortillas, chorizo, scrambled eggs, pico de gallo, crema, black beans and guacamole. And if you’re lucky, there might even be a mariachi band playing. El Camino Cantina is a big, bold venue at 18 Argyle Street (right next to the Argyle) that also offers Happy Hours Sunday to Friday (with free chips, salsa, queso and drink specials), Ghost Chilli Mondays (a burger and a beer for $20) and Wing Wednesdays (with a dozen wings for $15). Book your visit at the website.
The Bank held a backyard barbecue party and we bet you're sorry you missed it
Can you think of a better way to send off winter and let the spring come in than with a Latin American barbecue cook out in a freshly re-done beer garden? Neither can we, and neither could the Bank, which is why on the 31st of August, they invited DJ Gonzo to take over the decks, and held a good old fashioned cook off, with barbecue corn, pinto beans, and plenty of charcoal chook to go around. They invited the whole neighbourhood down to celebrate and sample the new menu, and there was much feasting, drinking, and even a spot of dancing. Sorry you missed out? Don't be. That party may have been a good one, but it was just a warm up to what'll be happening at the Bank every day this spring and summer. The Bank in Newtown has been a drawing crowds to the Inner West for decades. With a famous beer garden, live music at Waywards bar where entry is always free, and craft beer bar Uncle Hops, the Bank is a one-stop party shop. Now the Bank has unveilied a new charcoal barbecue in pride of place in the venue’s famous beer garden. It's operated by a new head chef, Zac Smart (SoCal in Neutral Bay), who has devised a fresh menu based around the flavours imparted by barbecue techniques. But don’t expect the American style of barbecue that’s all too familiar to Sydney pub goers. Smart is more interested in the Latin American side of the equation, with flavours like house-made chimichurri and romesco sauce, chancaca and chillies. The menu features dishes such as cauliflower an
Liveworks
Liveworks festival is the main event in Performance Space's annual program, showcasing local, interstate and international artists pushing the frontiers of art and performance. In 2016, artists include dancer/choreographer Kristina Chan, who offers a meditation on impermance in the era of climate change, 'A Faint Existence'. Mish Grigor (of the collective post) will give 'The Talk' – in which she re-enacts awkward conversations about sexuality she had with her family members. Visual artist Ross Manning will transform CarriageWorks' public spaces into a psychedelic landscape with his installation 'Melody Lines'. Meanwhile Indigenous acoustic outfit the Stiff Gins will give a music-based performance about Indigenous artefacts held in museums.Experimental musician and composer Jon Rose will showcase his extraordinary collection of hand-built instruments for 'The Museum Goes Live'. Taiwanese performance artist River Lin will ask visitors to nominate 'unclean' parts of their bodies in a work titled 'Cleansing Service'. And there's more besides: check the website for the complete line-up. For a limited time CarriageWorks is offering an Earlybird discount of 20 per cent off all tickets for Liveworks.