Urban List Recommends

Suupaa is where convenience meets culinary creativity—consider Japanese konbini vibes with a Melbournian twist. The latest venture from the visionaries behind Future Future, this quirky little spot is redefining the “grab-and-go” experience.

This Melbourne-staple has truly stood the test of time and when a new generation of the family took over, expanded into a very hip (and much more relaxed) Fitzroy outpost, and then headed over west to Highpoint.

Sitting pretty atop a Cremorne tenth floor is none other than Amatrice, a swish Italian joint that’s changing the rooftop bar game.

It’s the same thing every time: you open the wardrobe and stare at dozens and dozens of outfits, waiting for something good to manifest, like chocolate in an empty fridge. When did we buy all this crap? And why did we think maroon jeans would stand the test of time? Well lucky for us there’s a place that’s working to break the clothing-misery cycle.

New Balance lands in Melbourne Central with its huge new concept store in the old Kookaï digs.

Tucked away on Little Collins Street, e.g.etal is more art gallery than jewellery store, exhibiting exquisite contemporary jewellery from over 50 Australian and New Zealand designers.

A Brunswick institution since 1989, Dejour Jeans on Sydney Road is a denim lover's dream. This not-so-hidden gem offers Australian tailor-made jeans for $65. Yep, bespoke jeans, made to fit, for $65. That isn't a typo. 

It's the Sydney-born brand that’s worked with the likes of Kendall Jenner and Travis Scott, and has outposts in all of the major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and London. Now, the streetwear label is returning to its aussie roots with a flagship store in Melbourne.

Melbourne is no stranger to fashionable punters—after all, the city is dubbed the fashion capital for a reason. You wouldn’t be the first to be in awe of someone’s fit as they walk down Swanston Street, and you certainly wouldn’t be the last. Wondering where everyone is going? It could very well be SWOP. 

Scent is arguably the most powerful of all the senses—it can transport you to another place, or a different time. Born out of a warehouse and raised in Melbourne, Flâner Fragrances is a niche fragrance house that are all about using scent to tell a story, with each product in their perfume line developed with a distinctive profile and place in mind. Although they only launched in 2022, they’ve already developed a keen following, and are now opening up their very own boutique store on the iconic Gertrude Street in Fitzroy.

A cornerstone of the city's sartorial community, Up There Store has long stood as the preeminent destination for the burgeoning trends of Melbourne. 

Tom Lillecrapp might have the best job in the world. He’s a full-time dog adventurer. All day, every day, he takes peoples’ dogs into the wild and plays with them. That’s basically the whole business.

If you’re a Melbourne foodie, chances are you have heard of Brunetti’s. Known for their authentic gelato, espresso and decadent cakes, the original Lygon Street store first opened in 1974 by Pierro Brunetti. It didn’t take long for Melburnians to grow attached to the sweet delicacies, which saw the business outgrowing their original store. So, in 1985 Brunetti’s moved to Lygon street where in 1991 it was purchased by the Angelé family.

Once upon a time, Arc’teryx was exclusively reserved for the weekend warriors and outdoors type as a top-end brand that would help one attack the elements. In more recent times, however, the brand has been adopted by the global streetwear community thanks to the versatility of the garms and Veilance, their fashion-forward sibling label—and now, you can find both under one roof at their new flagship Chadstone locale. 

Sometimes, the simple act of gifting others—or yourself—a bouquet of flowers is all that’s needed to brighten one’s day. There is a little more to it than just bunching a couple of flowers together, however, and that’s where Prairies comes in.

Sometimes, you just want a no-frills number one shave on your dome-piece. Other times, you want a detached quiff to skin-fade. With a strict “everyone welcome” policy, a trim with the barbers at Yours Truly should be considered.

LA steeze powerhouse, JOYRICH, has arrived in Melbourne, and they’ve set up their first location in the backblocks of Cremorne. 

In excellent news for Melbourne's film photography enthusiasts, online film seller Walkens House Of Film has developed into a bricks and mortar operation in Fitzroy.

Melbourne-based not-for-profit streetwear label HoMie celebrates it’s fourth birthday this year and is celebrating some impressive milestones they have knocked up along the way.

Patagonia has unveiled its new flagship store in Melbourne, reviving a heritage building from 1884.

You might be familiar with Melbourne-based luggage brand July, we wrote about them earlier this year. Well, now less than a year since the brand launched, they’ve opened their first retail store in Emporium.

In the past eight years, FilmNeverDie has changed locations five times. And now they’re finally ready to settle down at their latest location in the CBD.

Opening the first ‘Power Store’ in the Asia Pacific and joining just a handful of other locations in the world that have them (New York, London and Detroit), Foot Locker just hit QV Melbourne.

Located in the heart of the city on Collins Street is MetaScent perfume studio and retail store run by Janelle Donnelly and Huynh Hai Yen who met studying professional perfumery.

Do you want to get inked, but find walking into tattoo shops a little too intimidating? If so, Heart & Soul Tattoo should be your next port of call.

Whether you are a longtime fan of the Japanese retailer or if you’ve only heard about it in passing, MUJI’s new store opening in Chadstone is a great chance to begin your journey to Japanese home living. 

Step into the store and you are immediately transported to a psychedelic world of purple metallic changerooms and sequin curtains, disco music bouncing out of the speakers and a fluorescent green zebra at the door to greet customers.

Melbourne’s first Splash Room just splashed on the scene and it’s even fun to say: Smash Splash. Try saying that three times fast.

Kathryn & the Bear is a collaboration between two businesses: Kathryn from Jak & Co design and Bettina from Leaf & Bear Nursery.  

If you’ve ever dreamt of sauntering through London’s Dover Street Market or finding something special at Opening Ceremony, then Slow Waves needs to be your next shopping destination.  

Scandinavian design has a new home in St Kilda and it’ll make you want to renovate your home weekly.

Matt Bax, who gifted us Bar Americano and now-closed Der Raum, recently launched a gallery-bar hybrid, which happens to be our favourite type of hybrid.

The Plant Runner is the result of a long-time passion project between two friends, Duncan Hilder and Dominic Hooghuis. These guys are both qualified horticulturalists who have each run their own businesses with years of experience between them.

Shut up and take our money—Milligram just opened its fourth store in Carlton. For those of you who are not familiar, Milligram is the ultimate store for the design, stationery and lifestyle buff. 

Photography geeks on the North side, rejoice: Work In Process is a small processing lab where you can make all your analog photography dreams come true.

Windsor just gained a shiny new store whose luxurious nonchalance looks right at home on Chapel Street.

Luxury streetwear brand Off-White launched in 2013 and has experienced immense growth year in, year out since it hit the market. Founded by Virgil Abloh, the brand has collaborated with some industry giants including Kith, Levi’s and IKEA.

Our streetwear prayers have been answered—Australia’s first Champion store now resides at Chadstone.

It’s official: Melbourne’s the second Australian home of the legendary Leica brand. And it’s three times bigger than Sydney’s location. (Not that we measured or anything.)

Despite what their Insta profile would have you believe, Halide Supply are not an amateur sports team.

There’s nothing wrong with CBD shopping, but you do tend to see the same brands again and again. And again.

Melbourne has copped Australia’s first female-driven bricks-and-mortar sneaker store, and it’s about bloody time. 

If you want to mix it with the lycra brigade on Beach Rd, you need to dress schmick. You need to look like you’re about to lead the peloton up the Col du Soulor or some shit.

Secret Sneaker Store must be one of the best-kept secrets in the entire sneaker industry. Secret. Sneaker. Store. Try saying that five times without developing a lisp, I dare you.

There’s not much Liz Turner doesn’t know about plants. The owner of new Preston plant shop, Plantsmith, is a qualified horticulturalist, interned at the Botanic Gardens and worked as a garden consultant for more than 10 years.

You can’t call yourself a true Melbournian till you’ve stuck your hand on the Waterwall at the National Gallery of Victoria (AKA the NGV International). It’s something every Melbourne local remembers from their childhood.

If northside living was a product, you’d find it on the shelves at Keoma. This place is what Fitzroy is all about.

It’s funny, when you need something nice for yourself you hot foot it straight to your favourite store and throw a bit of cash around. But when your pet needs something nice, where do you go?

It took a while, but Sydney-born success story, Bassike, has finally joined the Emporium flock. It’s good to see the CBD’s premier shopping destination embracing more local designers (not that we don’t love cruising Superdry and Uniqlo with the best of them).

If we were showing a Sydneysider the good places in Melbourne, we’d take them here. Brixton Pound in Seddon.

Finding the perfect pair of jeans is like finding a good-looking guy with nice intentions under the age of 25: close to impossible.

You’re walking down Gertrude St when a pop of yellow catches your eye. It’s either a rogue canary, or this place—Variety Hour.

It’s hard not to get excited about suits when you’re chatting to Miles Wharton. He’s the kind of guy that makes James Bond look underdressed.

We’ll try not to geek out too hard with this one, but it won’t be easy. The Store Of Requirement lends itself to multiple exclamation marks, obscure Harry Potter puns and dressing in wizards robes like nobody’s watching.

You’d never know it was here from down on Collins St. Perched up on the second level, with a view of leafy plane trees, there’s a New York-style jewellery store with a history going back to Melbourne’s gold rush days. This is the new-look Kozminsky.

Pépite started in 2017 as a pop-up in Northcote: a small place for founder and artist Irina Rybakov to display her creations and champion some local designers.

Ryder may have moved, but the brand hasn’t lost its Australian accent. On the front doorstep, picked out in tiny hexagonal tiles, are two protea flowers and the word “G’day”. It’s a beautiful touch. We’re seriously considering one for the office...

Pickings & Parry is one of those stores that makes you feel 10% more manly just by standing in it. As if, with enough passive exposure, you could arm wrestle a grizzly bear and mix an Old Fashioned at the same time.

If you’re driving along Gilbert Rd in Preston, don’t be surprised if a pop of pink and Ministry-Of-Magic-green tiling catches your eye. This is Pinky’s—a pastel design and homewares wonderland from local artist Emily Green and stylist Beckie Littler. AKA your new happy place.

Local slow-fashion boutique Kuwaii started as an alternative to the ‘churn’ fashion model: cheap materials, low-quality labour, nothing sustainable or ethical. Founder and designer Kristy Barber wanted to change all that, so 10 years ago she started up a little boutique label (the name’s a play on kawaii, the Japanese cuteness culture).

Most people wouldn’t open a nursery dedicated to plants you can’t cuddle, but Naomi Burd isn’t most people. Cool Cactus is her indoor succulent store in Armadale, just off the main Glenferrie Rd drag.

If you ever tried wheel pottery in school, you’ll know it’s a) messy as hell, and b) a LOT of fun. It doesn’t even matter if your bowl comes out looking a bit wonky—call it ‘rustic’ and bump the market-stall price by 20%. Everyone’s a winner.

The Australian-made, tailored silhouettes of Manning Cartell have a glorious new postcode to call home. They've sashayed their way onto the ritzy strip of High Street, Armadale. 

There's no doubt about it: Melbourne is ageing backwards when it comes to music. If you don't have a retro turntable hooked up to a killer amp at home, do you even really have ears?

Everyone knows you can’t have #apartmentporn without a few monstera, fiddle leafs and Devil’s Ivy dangling from the ceiling, right?  

Libby Mclean started selling plants out of her front garden back in 2015. And slowly, like a green shoot pushing through the earth, her business started to grow.

Hattie Molly stormed onto the Melbourne flower scene back in 2015 (oh yes, there’s a scene). She used to operate out of a private space on Rupert St in Collingwood, but now she’s got her own concept store on Johnston St. And it’s looking all sorts of beautiful.

If you’re heavy into indoor plants like us, you’re going to need to know about The Jungle Collective.

The word ‘eclectic’ doesn’t really do The Hub General Store justice.

It’s really hard to find justtttt the right flowers for an event. Like, how are we supposed to pick between deep red roses or brightly coloured daisies? And does it really matter? (Yes, actually it does.) Seriously, the struggle to be a functioning adult is very real.

Ever get the feeling your dog could be more stylish than you? (It’s okay, we’ve all been there.) Well heads up, you’re gonna like this place.

Stationery nerds, your time has come. Australia’s biggest online stationery retailer, NoteMaker (now known as Milligram), has opened their first bricks and mortar store in Melbourne Central.

It’s one of the wedding traditions we don’t talk about. Get the bridesmaids to wear hideous dresses so that, by direct comparison, the bride looks like some luminous alien brought down from heaven.

Online homewares giant AURA has just opened their first official bricks and mortar store, and our bank accounts are terrified.

Let’s get real; Fenton & Fenton is without a doubt a furniture and homewares mecca. It’s like walking into your dreams, you know the ones you have of your house featuring on the cover of Vogue Living? (no? that’s just us?!).

It’s unisex, edgy, and very farrsshuunnn—it’s Collingwood’s Spacebound Store. If you haven’t heard of this local independent label before, then are you even Melbourne? Jokes aside, Spacebound really needs to be on your list if minimalist t-shirt designs, faux suede, and monochrome detailing makes you first-world broke.

Up top, Carlton! You just got a sweet new organic grocer and juice bar.

For husband and wife team Alex and Jode, the secret to a good homewares store is pretty simple:

Welcome to a wonderland of the bizarre.

The Cork & Chroma paint and sip studio has opened in Melbourne, following four years of crazy success at their flagship studios in Sydney and Brisbane (obviously, they saved the best until last).

A nursery and jaffle bar, all in one? You better believe it, because nestled in Melbourne’s inner 'burbs is our new favourite green space: Native Home, House of Plants. 

Abbotsford's favourite brewery bar is growing up. Moon Dog Brewery has recently taken over the warehouse next door, expanding their beer capacity (they're able to pump out a ridiculous 2.5 million litres a year, now) as well as launching a pizza trailer and roller disco. Yep, all in a day's work for the Moon Dog boys.

Georgia Perry describes Kiosk as her “playroom”, a physical space she can dream up her own products of internet-y graphics and silk scarves.

Armadale’s bustling High St has a new resident, and it’s looking classy AF. Meet The New Trend, an iconic Canadian multi-brand fashion retailer that started up back in 1992.

Sneaker-heads, listen up, because Sneakerboy just opened its latest concept store in Chadstone, and it’s looking absolutely ridiculous. If Turtle from Entourage had dreams, they would look something like this: a brushed-concrete Trainer Temple, big flat screens hanging from the ceiling, decked out in cutting-edge street footwear.

As humans, we have all of the modern convenience of the supermarket at just a short walk or drive away, but since the dawn of time, our humble pets have struggled to find the same convenience of a grocery store that serves their particular needs. Well, that’s all changed with The Pet Grocer opening up a permanent shop in South Melbourne.

The Paris end of Collins St has long been home to the crème de la crème of Melbourne fashion. But that might be about to change. Flinders Ln is throwing its impeccably styled hat into the ring with its new menswear store: MASONS.

How many times have you spotted a marsupial, just walking along, and thought: ‘That pouch looks really convenient. I wish I had a pouch to put stuff in.’ Must happen to us at least a couple of times a day. Well rejoice, because a new Aussie boutique has developed a range of products that celebrates the humble marsupial.  

Tired of seeing the same fjallraven and Longchamp backpacks on everyone from uni students to cashed-up Toorak mums? We feel you. Finding a bag that’s actually unique (and not just spruiked as ‘unique’ by a brand’s marketing team) is actually kind of hard. Especially in an age where Instagram is making fashion increasingly generic and homogenized.  

Influential designer Piero Gesualdi is best known for his Australian first 500-seat eating and drinking hall, Rosati’s. But his latest venture Mondopiero is seriously stepping up the game in retail destinations. It’s the ultimate style chic for just about anything retail/art. Located in quirky hub of Fitzroy the 400sqm space has an insane collection of furniture, art, personal accessories, fashion, homewares and beauty products from all around the globe.

A 60s-inspired fashion boutique inside St Paul’s Cathedral? Yep, it does exist.

Time to upgrade your plastic-fantastic Casio? We know just the place. German watch brand Kapten & Son has just opened Australia’s first ever bricks and mortar store, and—hells yes—it’s in Melbourne. Prahran to be precise, tucked down King St just opposite the Town Hall (look out for the blue anchor sign as you’re walking down Chapel).