Best shopping in Shoreditch

If you like your clothes stores to offer more than just rails of apparel, Aida is the Shoreditch outlet for you. Marketing itself as a neighbourhood hangout, it invites you to pull up a flea-market pew in its in-store café and catch up with the community. Those just interested in clothes won’t be disappointed either: Aida is bursting at the seams with chic indie labels, from Wondaland and Minimum for girls to Knowledge Cotton and Worn By for boys.

There’s something quietly satisfying and delightfully unshowy about British designer Ally Capellino’s bags, belts, wallets and purses. Her signature pieces include understated, unisex satchels made from waxed cotton or canvas, with leather buckles: a classic ‘Jeremy’ will set you back around £200. Other offerings run from crisp canvas beach bags with rope handles to more structured yet simple handbags.

Jean Touitou's understated Parisian label APC (Atelier de Production et de Creation) is a fixture of the ever-trendy Redchurch Street. Touitou's hip, European style has been attracting discerning dressers since the late 1980s and this new address (one of seven in London) should please a flock of men in search of a pair of APC's near cult-famous jeans.

A first stop for East End trendies, Goodhood is owned by streetwear obsessives Kyle Stewart and Jo Sindle and features an expanded Goodhood edit of womenswear, menswear, accessories, kids’ stuff, beauty and grooming products, plus homeware and fancy camping gear. Japanese independent labels are well represented, while other covetable brands include Pendleton, Norse Projects, Our Legacy and Wood Wood. The upscale, leftfield stock is hand-picked to appeal to Goodhood’s very East End customer but is shot through with a real sense of humour and a few easy, low-cost buys: branded tees, jackets and hats, plus affordable trinkets, mugs, badges and stickers.

House of Hackney's home, unsurprisingly, is in its namesake borough and is one of the most gorgeous retail establishments to land in London in years. Since 2013, this flagship store has been bedecked in the deliberately over-the-top juxtapositions of print-on-print-on-print that have made the brand's name. Once you cross the threshold, you're met with black polished floors and Dalston rose wallpapers lined up cheek by jowl with palm prints, bee prints and more. All of House of Hackney's stunning print collections are here – represented upstairs in rolls of paper, fabric, trays, mugs, fashion and collaborative designs with brands including Puma and William Morris. Elsewhere, you'll find furniture - with generously proportioned sofas and plump armchairs in more-is-more combinations of print and texture.

This intriguing store is part of the Ministry of Stories – an initiative that sees professional writers mentor young people in the art of story writing. Set up by Nick Hornby (and inspired by a similar project founded by Dave Eggars in the US), it works to encourage wild creativity and hopes to transform lives through writing. The shop itself reflects the bonkers tone of the workshops and stocks ghoulish treats from the 'thickest human snot' (which we suspect might be lemon curd) to cubed 'earwax'.

This store sells the sort of things everybody would have had in their kitchen or pantry 60 years ago: functional domestic goods. You’ll also find a small range of classic vintage clothing here, encompassing work jackets, aprons and more, plus an array of notebooks and old-fashioned gifts for children – think a pinhole camera kit and vintage-style satchels.

Leila McAlister’s eclectic store has the nous to distinguish between crusty and gooey brownies and offer customers the choice. There are fresh, seasonal fruit and veg, breads and cheeses, French sunflower oil (sold from large plastic bottles), and bags of marcona almonds. Among the packaged groceries are Chegworth Farm juices, chutneys, jams and the like from Tracklements in Wiltshire. 

The stock here is put together by a collective of young artisans, including Polly George, Rheanna Lingham and Kaoru Parry. The shop stocks everything from fun and colourful fashion for all to home goods ranging from snazzy candle holders and dinner plates to unique, conversation-starting jewellery and toys and books for kids of all ages. Every month, the shop offers up space to a team of emerging designers to display their work.

This eighteenth-century clerk's house is so tiny you wouldn't think it would be able to stock much of anything. But it's packed with interesting homewares, clothes, accessories and one of the largest Fornasetti collections in London. Pay a visit if you want to peruse some of East London’s finest design talent, too.

The flagship store of this former pop-up boutique specialises in luxury goods. In this stylish setting of polished concrete and chequered tiles, you'll find clothes with clean-cut lines to suit a unisex fit and hand-embroidered casuals with a very cool feel. There’s also a chic cafe on the premises, which serves hot and cold drinks, as well as a selection of light bites.

Murdock's artfully over-scrubbed interiors, full of flock wallpaper, vintage shop fittings and retro-packaged products, belies the small London chain's real age. Its first barbershop, in Shoreditch, opened in 2006 and still perfectly delivers the sort of centuries-old faux-heritage that is often copied but never bettered. Take a seat to take advantage of the shop’s full grooming package, from wet shaves, manicures and in-chair treatments to simple cuts and clever restyles.

The indie music label Rough Trade – perhaps most famous for signing the Smiths in the early 1980s – set up this 5,000sq ft (465sq m) record store, café and gig space in the noughties when the death of music shops in the face of internet price-cutting was widely accepted as inevitable. Perversely, Rough Trade instead offered a physical space where music lovers could browse a dizzying range of vinyl and CDs, spanning punk, indie, dub, soul, electronica and more, providing them with 16 listening posts. The store also welcomes live performers of pretty much every persuasion to their purpose-built stage, with standing room in front sensibly factored into the planning. Sets are shorter than a regular gig and there can be long queues for bigger named acts, but then, who wouldn't queue to see free sets from the diverse likes of Blur, Marianne Faithful and Vampire Weekend?

It’s hard to believe SCP has lived on Curtain Road for over 30 years: its creative, contemporary products feel entirely geared to the East End’s relatively recent influx of cool-hunters. But founder Sheridan Coakley has long championed functional and beautiful design and stocked the two floors of his store with statement items for every space in the home.

After hosting pop-ups in Shoreditch, SCRT opened its first permanent store in the area, bringing its box-fit, utilitarian wares to the local community for good. The brand takes inspiration from the more surreal parts of culture and media, infusing eye-catching and intriguing prints onto streetwear ‘fits that aim to be as sustainable as they are stylish.

Brick Lane is a go-to for vintage clothing, but Serotonin is one of the neighbourhood's standout. Inside the cool showroom – where leopard print chairs meet neon pink walls – you'll find designer bargains, retro accessories and one-off items with a punky emo edge. Browsing the racks here is always an eye-catching experience.

The first, and really the loveliest, retail outlet for classic British menswear brand Sunspel. It specialises in quality underwear, T-shirts and polo shirts and claims to have introduced boxer shorts to the UK too.

Part of the Old Truman Brewery, this independent boutique stocks the full range of cool British fashion brand You Must Create. The interior, bizarrely designed like a morgue, is surprisingly easy on the eye. Although your entrance is greeted by a well-dressed mannequin strapped in a mental asylum chair, the friendly staff are quick to put you at ease and help you navigate the mid-priced range of striped tops, quirky knits and leather accessories for him and her. On the morgue slab in the middle of the store, accessories such as watches, socks and bags are casually laid out between vintage mannequin legs, continuing the cheery corpse theme. Fitting rooms are spacious and cool with large, thick prison doors, while the bright colours of the clothes themselves bring life to the death-themed shop.