Starting to realise I really like lists.

I wonder if that’s a little nostalgic? All marketing content 20 years ago was “Top x things to do in…”, and in hindsight that all feels quite sweet given that most writing now seems to be something along the lines of “Why using these types of frying pans will definitely kill you very soon”.

Anyway, I digress. 

Today’s list is of my favourite hipster stores in the world. 

Havens for men with little hats, little bags and little beards. Meccas for women in seemingly scruffy outfits that actually costs hundreds if not thousands of pounds. A place to call home for anyone dressed like they’re about to climb a mountain but are actually just looking for a cortado and an expensive notebook.

Hipsters, God love them, have influenced a trend of indie-ish, department store-ish spaces around the world. And do you know what? By and large, those spaces tend to be amazing.

The product mix and range is normally small and eclectic. The brands they stock are often but not always mission-driven. The design and merchandising is often really inventive and tends to have a refreshing, DIY energy.

As you can see the criteria here are loose at best. But who cares, it’s my list.

So here are my top, however many I think of, hipster stores in the world. Visit them all, and I’ll send you a hat so small it can only be seen when you zoom in on instagram.

Image credit – Jack Stratten/Insider Trends

1. Goodhood, Shoreditch, London

The recently upgraded Goodhood in East London is arguably the motherland of hipsterdom.

It’s a genuinely beautiful, vast, meandering space with a gorgeous cafe that’s just fun to wander around. It’s also so trendy it can feel a little uncomfortable for regular, hipster-adjacent folks like me. There’s an espresso machine for sale made in brutalist concrete, completely unironically. Sure, I own a carhartt cap but that’s a little short of the mark here.

I digress again. It’s beautiful – and it’s housed next to the Truman Brewery in London which feels like it’s almost global ground zero for people who’ve normalised spending £10 on a croissant (“yeah but it’s flakier than any I’ve ever had”).

If you want to understand the hipster flagship, start here.

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