The best shopping in Switzerland

Le Bal des Créateurs is a concept store devised by Geneva’s most famous hairdresser, Christophe Durand. Housed in an old art gallery, it features a bookshop, beauty room, hairdresser's and 150m2 gallery area, making it a favourite with local designers and the fashion press.

Part design workshop, part vintage emporium and part café bar, Les Enfants Terribles pulls off a feat of multi-tasking to be one of the coolest spaces in Geneva. 

MAD in this case doesn’t stand for crazy, although there is something of the weird and wonderful about this place. It stands for Mechanical Art Devices, and it's a gallery and shop that shows unconventional pieces from leading international artists in kinetic (movable) art. 

Turn your back on the lake and hike up the hill towards Geneva’s upmarket Florissant quarter for hippy-dippy interior design shop Ozone. Inspired by 1960s London, it offers an affordable range of retro goodies – think bright Perspex vases, Warhol prints and quirky Quadrophenia-inspired mirrors. 

The intriguing and busy bazaar window display at interiors shop Le Panapé de Caméla catches the imagination of passing students from nearby Geneva University as much as local big-spenders.

Tucked away in Place des Augustins, this shop is known for its selection of unique pieces by Swiss and international independent designers. 

Any shopping trip to Geneva should, and inevitably will, feature this busy department store at some point. Fashionwise, the selection has become more adventurous in recent years and now includes edgy, contemporary brands from the likes of hipster favourite Maje and Sandro, while the vast lingerie department stocks every “it” brand from Elle Macpherson to Hanky Panky. 

An antidote to big-name chain cafés and a pocket of calm amid the bustle of Rue de Carouge, Les Recyclables is a delight. Half café, half second-hand bookshop, it lures you in for a drink or lunch and tempts you with a selection of new reading material. 

A welcome addition to the designer fashion scene in Geneva, La Muse offers an edgy and eclectic mix of brands passionately sold to you by its owner, Viola. Her creative mix of labels includes established British and international names such as Vivienne Westwood and Hudson, and newly emerging homegrown talent. 

Poetry and art inspire the décor of this uptown multibrand store. The tone is set by the words to the French poem L’Apollinaire printed across swathes of linen, and specially commissioned pieces of Italian designer furniture fixed to the floor.

On Wednesdays and Saturdays Lausanne’s pedestrian streets take on a pleasing bustle with the arrival of the market. 

One of Lausanne’s best chocolatiers, Durig occupies two shops in the city, but this is the original one, where the chocolates are made on site.

A great place for picking up an original gift, Particules en Suspension (which also owns the nearby Particules Fines) comprises two levels of gadgets, trinkets, books, cards, kitchenware, t-shirts and baby gifts. 

This lovely boutique and gift shop is a delight for anyone who likes retro style and patterned fabrics.

It’s practically impossible to walk past this artisan chocolate shop without going in, such are the enticing window displays and the rich cocoa smell wafting from the doorway. 

Drawing on the pleasing but rather tenuous link between fairycakes and fairytales, this idiosyncratic place is part cupcake bakery, part t-shirt shop with a princess theme.

A mix between a hipster’s go-to store and a fancy dress shop, Maniak fills its copious floor space with an unusual combination of top street-cool brands such as Dickies, Carhartt and Superdry, and dress-up essentials including devil horns, mullet wigs and feather boas. 

This lovely shop tucked up a side street in Lausanne’s pedestrian area sells soaps, lotions and bath salts made using natural, biodegradable Swiss ingredients drawn from alpine flowers, vegetable oils and even cow’s milk.

The rather downmarket shopfront doesn’t do this place justice, but venture inside and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Appropriately housed in one of the former warehouses in trendy Le Flon, this is a temple to trainers.

Known lovingly by Bern’s fashion crowd as “Mapi”, Maria Pia Amabile is a Swiss-Italian fashion designer with an energetic enthusiasm that breathes life into her ready-to-wear collections.

Ooonyva is a stylish cavern of a boutique beneath Bern’s arcades. 

Bernese fashion designer Susanne Pfeffer’s label, 2ème Étage, comprises bold pieces that are at once eye-catching and stylish. 

To get the look of a Bern local, a Fiona Losinger leather bag will serve you well. 

The vibrant fabric collections sold in Bernese boutique Ooonyva are based on influences as diverse as artists including Frida Kahlo, places like Pellon’s native Lyon and topics such as the seven biblical sins.

Bern designer Debora Rentsch knows that beautiful basics are the key to any outfit, and has created a label around this concept. 

This Bernese label run by Nicole Verbeek-Burri and Evelyne Pfeffer is clear about what it stands for: uncomplicated fashion that can be worn from day to evening and make all body shapes and sizes look and feel beautiful. 

A regular Aladdin’s Cave of delights, Yamatuti embraces the classier side of kitsch with its offerings of greeting cards, homewares, kitchen accessories and other items that fall definitely into the category of “want” rather than “need”.

Bernese footwear label Tokushuu is a fairy godmother for anyone who has anything but perfect Cinderella feet.

The Peter Hahn brand specialises in high-quality women's fashion and men's clothing and stocks designs that are heavy on silk, cashmere and cotton.