Slideshow: Seattle’s Most Seattle-y Shops
SLIDESHOW: Seattle’s most essential shops. Round 1.
Let’s start where Seattle shopping started, at CC Filson Co. The heritage brand’s flagship shop in SoDo manages to maintain it’s outerwear integrity while creeping into bonafide fashion territory. Half the staff can talk hunting and fishing, the other hipsters and ironically cool bluegrass bands. So Seattle.
Seattle’s a family town, and Ballard is family central, and Clover Kids Toys epitomizes both the neighborhood and the city. Nothing toxic, everything smart and well-intended, all inside an environment that’s super cozy, welcoming, and fun.
Hey sports fans, did you know that Ebbets Field Flannels is the best place on earth to find obscure team jerseys based on old school vintage designs?
We’re well-read around here, thanks in large part to Elliott Bay Books. Word nerds won’t find a better browsing than this; the coffee shop in the back completes the experience.
Visitors love checking the flagship Nordstrom store, and no shopping tour would be complete without a stop there. But while you’re downtown, you should also hit Mario’s, a full-service mom-and-pop style department store with all the designers—Jason Wu to Prada, Helmut Lang to Hugo Boss—of bigger nationals, and more of that insider, niche vibe.
Paris in Fremont? Yes, at Essenza, where scents, jewels, and other assorted gems of the fine life have traveled from near and far. Service is impeccable and friendly.
Historic Georgetown is home to Fantagraphics Books and Gallery, where the famed publishing company offers its graphic novels, comic books, and more. Go around the corner to All-City Coffee or Via Tribunali Pizza to round out the day.
Fine European- and Russian-made ceramics and porcelain, the leading edge of world-sourced and locally designed home accessories, and eclectic, well-humored gifts under 40 bucks make Far 4 one of the most surprising and unique shops in all of downtown. Be sure to ask about the house line, made by the Klimenkoff family’s studio in Moscow. It’s like a post-modern Meissen (which the shop also carries); exquisitely made, narrative, and irreverent.
The best accessories store in the west is in a charming little neighborhood called Madrona. It’s called Hitchcock and whether your taste runs toward delicate and finely jeweled or chunky, edgy, and supermodern, it’s an absolute essential.
The historic International District art and gift shop Kobo at Higo is not just a must-stop before or after Dim Sum or sushi, or Uwajimaya, our Asian grocery superstore, it’s a destination in its own right.
Leave yourself some time to explore Pike Place Market’s World Spice; it smells so amazing in there, you’ll want a few minutes to just inhale. Ask for the rubs and spice mixes that coordinate with our local seafood, and take those home to Ohio and blow their minds. Need lunch? Two words, they’re around the corner and down the steps:
Il Corvo.
There’s something about a curated collection of globes and travel books that makes Seattle feel like the center of the world. Globes—in the age of pocket GPS systems. We love Metsker Maps.
The brainchild of Seattle art collector Ruth True, NuBe Green is wholly all-American and the clothes, furniture, gifts, and random findings are all the more compelling because of it.
Local photographer Charlie Schuck opened Object after a series of shop-like parties in his loft. The collection of mostly Northwest-made home decor and lifestyle pieces colors our artisans, designers, and artists as an incredibly sophisticated and world-worthy bunch.
It’s not our biggest bookstore, nor our most widely appealing, but there’s something so Seattle about the architecture- and design-focused Peter Miller Books. Pick up a gorgeous text and head across the street to Le Pichet where looking smart and well-designed is a house specialty.
Even if you never want to scale a rock face, you might want to scale the indoor version at the flagship REI.
Sonic Boom wasn’t a part of the ’90s music explosion, but it typifies the staying power of those years. In other words, the indie music store is our soundtrack.
Having recently relocated from a small space on the waterfront to a giant loft on Capitol Hill, Totokaelo is the one place in town that totally and completely dispels the notion that Northwesterners don’t have style.
Though its original owner recently handed the reigns to a new team, Ballard’s Velouria remains the first and finest among purveyors of local and independent fashion. Support the scene!
