From Anya Hindmarch’s London café to YSL’s Rive Droite in Paris, Bazaar Arabia shares the top spots that you need to visit
Searching for the best fashion cafés? We’ve complied a list of the top 5 spots that need to be on your radar here…
There’s a counter productivity in shopping-till-you-drop: it’s inefficient, amateurish and outright exhausting. Despite efforts to best conserve energy, boutiques and luxury stores have jumped aboard the restau-café bandwagon to help counteract shoppers’ fatigue while offering more than what is expected of a brand. In an era which pedestals caffeine culture, the urge to make something ‘Instagrammable’ and experiential-immersion, brands are giving consumerism a new meaning. So, whether you’re a shopaholic or simply in the mood to change the taste, Bazaar Arabia shares 5 of the best fashion cafés around the world…
Best Fashion Cafés
Café Leon Dore
Outside, a line oh-so-long but oh-so-worth-it of Instagram socialites, and, above all, coffee enthusiasts prying on social media’s latest fixation. Inside, a warm mahogany space exhibiting glossy Greek pastries, basking in the sunlight, alongside minimalistic merchandise. Cognizant of the Aimé Leon Dore brand itself, its own Café Leon Dore is the ultimatum for chic individuals, timelessness and Big Apple suave. For those craving a taste of the trends or that of a Greek summer, Bazaar Arabia recommends their infamous Freddo Espresso and Freddo Cappuccino, the two frothy iced espresso drinks all over our feeds.
Locations: New York’s Nolita District and London’s Soho District
Café Saint Laurent Rive Droite
Peeking quaintly behind the Tuileries gardens in Paris and anchored to its YSL Boutique on Rue du 29 Juillet blares an open-air café reminiscent of a nightclub. A little black cubicle lit by a neon sign glowing “Addicted to Love,” it’s everything from sleek to stylish and somewhat dystopian. The space appears to be reserved for exclusivity, but don’t be fooled for it remains the coffee hot-spot for Parisians and tourists far and wide. Beyond a quick Americano and croissant, guests are invited to purchase several items stamped with their infamous SAINT LAURENT Helvetica Neue logo, serving as a goody-bag or perhaps an Instagrammable token. Either way, the experience is a prize, one for curiosity and the other for shoppers fatigue.
Location: YSL Boutique, Rue du 29 Juillet, Paris
Kith Treats
Calling all hypebeasts and sweet-toothers alike. KITH, the NYC retail store selling all things sneakers, streetwear and funky chic, has reinvented the taste of nostalgia in the ice-cream concept of our dreams; nestled in KITH stores worldwide, Treats revels a tongue-tastifying experience that tasks shoppers with building the ultimate soft-serve creation. Between picking between 22 all-time favourite breakfast cereals, you really do go for the shoes and stay for the snack. With a line that hugs its way around its Soho store, Bazaar Arabia recommends you get there early— and hungry— because it’s so worth the wait.
Locations: NYC (Soho, Brooklyn, Manhattan), Miami, Los Angeles, Americana Manhasset’s Hirshleifers, Selfridges London and Tokyo’s Shibuya district.
Anya Hindmarch Café
Whether you’re chasing breakfast, or some afternoon tea, English designer Anya Hindmarch has found a way to make it playful, elevating the everyday meal into delightful escapism. Known to Londoners for her super chic aesthetic, the label serves as the template to a feel good yet be-loud café, one notorious for emoji-shaped petits fours and cappuccinos sprinkled with chocolate ‘slow down’ slogans. A clear nod to the naïve fun of her leather stickers, Anya’s Café is bound to brighten up any day, promising treats stuffed to the brim with sophistication, great taste, and palpable whimsicality.
This Peter Pan-like desire to never grow up has also birthed The Ice Cream Project, open until the 28th August 2022. In a bid to tingle the senses even further, the designer has come out with a limited edition ice-cream shop, selling flavours as unique as soy sauce and baked beans to Polo mints and Frosties cereal. Whether you’re in the mood for a pick-me-up scoop or a 500ml tub, you can find both the shop and café alike facing the Anya Hindmarch store on London’s Sloane Street.
Location: Sloane Street, London
Café Kitsune
Where there’s symmetry between label Maison Kitsuné and Café Kitsuné, there’s minimalism, simplicity and foxes. It’s a philosophy that has clearly worked in shifting the brand’s paradigm from strictly creating clothes into the food and beverage industry. It’s now grown into a cult favourite,— to say the least— serving an eager clientele of foodies from around the world, desperate to have a bite of the Paris-meets-Tokyo café. An ambiance both warmly cool, elegantly sleek and constantly whiffing coffee, it’s a must visit. To try, Bazaar Arabia recommends their mean iced matcha latte, Japanese egg-salad sandwhiches and, to complete the Kitsune experience, a fox-shaped biscuit.
Locations: Japan, South Korea, New York, Shanghai, Bangkok, Jakarta, Qatar and Manila
Choo Cafe
Enter the Madhatter’s Tea Party; perhaps not down a rabbit hole, rather up the winding Egyptian escalators nestled deep in London’s Harrods Department Store. Here, shoppers can expect to find Jimmy Choo’s new Choo Café, a Barbiecore-turned-dining-experience for the pink-a-holics and hungry alike. As you sit plushily on a fuchsia-pink banquette, you’ll be fed picnic treats and hors d’oeuvre-style-nibbles all in honour of British summertime. And, as courtesy for jumping aboard the Choo Choo chain, don’t expect anything less than a monogrammed latte or a ‘JC’ dusted strawberry cream cake. Delish.
Location: Fifth Floor, Harrods Department Store, London
Lead Images Courtesy Instagram/ @dorisvata_ @anyahindmarch