Sunday 6 March 2011

Ladies Day

After all the vintage hunting I’ve been doing lately, I thought it might make a nice change to check out one of the many boutiques in Barcelona. There are so many shops all over this city, but if you want to cover quite a few in a short space of time then you can’t do better than heading slightly north to Gracia. It’s a really lovely part of town to visit, as it has a kind of village-y charm, and there are so many shops you can’t go wrong.



I went up there today to check out one particular place, named Lady Loquita (well, two places really as there are two branches of the shop in Gracia). The Lady Loquita shops are both really pretty and well laid out with the clothes gathered on rails in colour blocks and lots of nicely displayed jewellery and accessories dotted around too. His Nibs enjoyed the area with a sofa and magazines, a really good idea that I think should be provided in every store.  I especially liked the décor in the second branch on Travessera de Gracia, the wallpaper in particular is fabulous. I was tempted to try to take a photo of it, but it’s always tricky in a shop as they tend to suspect you of being a competitor on the prowl. I just about managed to take some blurry pics of the shop fronts. Luckily they have photos on their site here so you’ll be able to see what I mean. 



The designs and brands featured in the store are very girly, to be honest probably too much so for me, although I did spy some cute dresses that I could picture myself in come summer. It would also be worth shopping there for those occasions when you may want to look demure, maybe if you’re meeting the in-laws for the first time. I struggle to ever imagine myself carrying off demure, but some of you may be able to. My favourite items were the jewellery from Polcan Designs, lots of gemstones and silver, which is pretty much what I wear all the time. You can find all the brands they carry on their website, some of them, like Yumi, you may already know but it’s good to see that many of them are locally based. They also have their own collection, Tiralahilacha. The prices are reasonable too, ranging from a couple of euros for postcards and hairclips to 20 to 100 euros for clothes. It's definitely worth checking them out, as there's a lot on offer in both stores.



I can see myself spending quite a bit more time in this part of town as I spied so many more places I want to check out. It’s also a great place to socialise in as it’s full of bars and restaurants and has some of the prettiest squares in Barcelona. I love where we live in Barceloneta but it’s great to know that we also have somewhere so nice to hang out in just a few metro stops away.

Let me know if you have any shops or areas in Barcelona that you'd like me to cover, I'm always open to suggestions. 

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