This vast new fashion store and holistic treatment centre is a dreamy place. Founder Tena Strok admits that, with its focus on pure living and elegant style brands, it's more the sort of boutique you'd see in West London - but, as she points out, 'Shoreditch is the new Meatpacking district', and it's easy to see female advertising creatives and designers coming in here to drop their pay packets on edgy designers and a back rub.
Strok is a former stylist, and rather than fill her shop with sure-fire sellers like Mulberry bags, she has sourced interesting labels from Paris, London and Scandinavia, hoping that her own taste chimes with her customers'. It certainly chimes with us - on our visit, the shelves were stocked with London's finest, from techy shoe designer Joanne Stoker to IT designer of the minute JW Anderson. The earthy store design and capacious shopping space gives browsing a relaxed pace, and when the basement is ready it will house pop-up events, treatment rooms and even fashion-focused book groups for those that take good living seriously. In order to give the store an air of tranquility, as well as a need-to-know feel, Strok chose an airy premises on a quieter side street rather than a main thoroughfare. We hope this is a risk that pays off, as Celestine Eleven is an example of independent shopping at its best, at a time when Shoreditch is at risk of being taken over by chain brands keen to cash in on its cool.
Celestine Eleven is number 12 in our list of the 100 best shops in London.