Whether you are into your designer brands or into the staple high street classics, if you are a self-confessed shopaholic, this is the travel list for you! So grab your Birkin bag and your suitably stylish Chanel jacket – here is the Her Campus top five for the perfect round the world shopping venture (but be mindful that you don’t spend your entire student loan all in one place!!)
1. Monaco and Monte Carlo
Monaco – the central turning point for the A-list and shopaholic alike, enjoying this tax-free haven. Whilst you stay at the Hotel Hermitage, you can patter along a few steps in your Jimmy Choo’s to the Le Metropole Shopping Center. With its eighty high-end boutique shops, the 10am to 7.30pm opening times are certainly not enough for all that fashion! A girl can dream that just like Grace Kelly, they can meet a member of the Monaco royal family as well …*sighs*
2. Paris
Paris is known for its epic fashion week – and its shopping really lives up to that. You can’t go to Paris without experiencing the delight of the shops on Rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré, or even Avenue Montaigne and of course Avenue des Champs-Elysées – the epitome of Parisian design, and with design houses such as Versace, Dior and Hermès in the Saint-Honoré, you cannot go wrong! If you are looking for department stores, it is so easy to get lost in the designer labyrinth of Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussmann, with the gourmet food shopping, home design, jewellery, and even hardware into a labyrinth of consumer delights. For more avant-garde looks, The Marais and Paris Flea Markets are both known for their vintage wardrobes and eclectic styles.
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3. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur is the extreme shopper’s paradise – the self-titled ‘mega’ sales that leave the madness of the Next Sale in the dust. The mega sale carnival period (unfortunately we have just missed it – 29th June to 1st September) is the sale we shoppers dream of, with a rumoured 70% off designer brands!! There are so many places within Kuala Lumpur where we can spend our entire overdraft, such as the Central Market, an art deco market with a mishmash of traders, fortune tellers and painters combined, selling a huge range of items from antique clocks to hand woven silks. Hidden upstairs on 145 Jalan Tun HS Lee is the elusive Peter Hoe. The store (which has been rumoured to be the headquarters of the Japanese secret police) is over 8,000 square feet of shopping heaven, with linen outfits, silver jewellery, lampshades, silk cushions, pillows and a café. For more bargains, it is worth heading to Bangsar – not only does it have a thriving club scene but also an intimidating number of shopping areas, especially the Bangsar Village II with brands such as Ted Baker having outlets here!!
Next on your shopping adventure, we have the ‘monster malls’. (A warning for the novice shoppers perhaps?) Kuala Lumpur’s Suria KLCC Shopping Complex is one such monster mall. It is stuffed with designer brands galore like Miu Miu, Cartier, Michael Kors, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, as well as having the region’s first Armani Café just to name a ‘few’. If that is not to your taste, head to Melium Outlet, the discount outlet where there is no rummaging through boxes for a bargain. Expect luxurious surroundings minus the horrifying price tags.
If after all that (if you still have money to burn), there is oh so much more, such as Bintang Walk. The Walk could rival the monster malls for the sheer volume of shops. Sungei Wang Plaza is known for its local designers shops such as Key Ng, Carven Ong, Michael Ong and William Liew. For more affordable shops such as H&M, Zara, Braun Buffel, Timberland, and the National Geographic store, you should check out Lot 10, another shopping complex nearby which prides itself on its manicured lawns.
However, Her Campus has saved the best for last. The couture central – Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. Brands such as Gucci, COACH, Canali, Giuseppe Zanotti, TOD’S, Chloe, Versace, Shanghai Tang, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Prada have flagship stores here. Add the amazing shops with floor length mirrors and sophistcated interiors is enough to make a shopaholic pass out from excitement!
Picture credits: www.panoramio.com, www.wikipedia.com, www.tokyofashion.com, www.cindystephenson.files.word…, www.jensenbeds.co.uk, www.hoteltourmaubourgparis.com