Concept Stores Worth Travelling For
lifestyle
From Milan to Marrakech, these independent stores turn shopping into an experience of cultural discovery.
The most memorable concept stores are defined by more than the products they sell. Each expresses a distinct point of view, bringing fashion, furniture, art, craft and everyday objects together within an environment that feels considered and personal.
Some resemble private homes or galleries. Others introduce visitors to emerging designers and local craft traditions that might otherwise remain difficult to discover. What connects them is the strength of their curation, and their ability to reveal something meaningful about the city around them.
Selected from recommendations shared by designers and creative insiders across the Designeers Destination Guides, these ten stores are places to seek out for inspiration as much as acquisition.
Antonia | Milan, Italy
Veenue | Shanghai, China
1. Antonia | Milan, Italy
Antonia is where fashion, design and culture converge, creating an experience that feels closer to a carefully curated gallery than a traditional boutique.
Designer fashion, contemporary objects and distinctive accessories are displayed in considered compositions, with every detail contributing to a refined visual narrative. The selection balances established names with emerging voices, reflecting an instinct for innovation while maintaining an unmistakably sophisticated point of view.
The appeal of Antonia lies in its sense of discovery. Every visit reveals new combinations, unexpected contrasts and pieces chosen not simply for their desirability, but for the dialogue they create with one another. The result is immersive and quietly theatrical, offering a space where style is experienced as a form of contemporary design.
Selected by etereo design. Continue exploring our Milan Design Guide.
2. Veenue | Shanghai, China
Veenue is defined by the precision of its curation, bringing art, furniture and distinctive objects together within an intimate Shanghai setting.
Vintage and contemporary pieces are selected for their material character, sculptural form and ability to introduce personality into an interior. The edit feels eclectic without becoming chaotic, allowing relationships to emerge between objects created in different places and periods.
More personal than a conventional furniture showroom, Veenue reflects Shanghai’s increasingly sophisticated collecting culture and its ability to place international influences into conversation with local creative identity.
It is the kind of destination that rewards browsing without a fixed objective: a trusted source for unexpected design discoveries and objects that might become the starting point for an entire interior.
Selected by Studio ŪMA. Continue exploring our Shanghai Design Guide.
Venice M’ART | Venice, Italy
Quarters | New York, USA
3. Venice M’ART | Venice, Italy
Created by the team behind Venice Venice Hotel, Venice M’ART offers a contemporary interpretation of the city’s historic identity as a meeting point for merchants, travellers and makers.
Art objects, fashion, books, design pieces and cultural curiosities are brought together within a setting that feels connected to Venice without becoming nostalgic. The selection is thoughtful and often unexpected, moving between practical objects, collectable editions and pieces rooted in the city’s creative traditions.
Rather than reproducing familiar images of Venetian luxury, Venice M’ART presents a younger and more experimental perspective. It captures the contradictions that make the city so compelling: historic yet continually reinvented, theatrical yet intimate, and shaped as much by international exchange as by local craftsmanship.
Selected by Aina Kari. Continue exploring our Venice Design Guide.
4. Quarters | New York, USA
Created by lighting and furniture studio In Common With, Quarters brings design, hospitality and retail together inside a richly composed Tribeca interior.
Collectible lighting, vintage furniture, artisan-made objects and pantry goods are displayed as part of a lived environment rather than arranged within a conventional showroom. Almost everything can be purchased, but the space feels closer to an elegant private residence than a shop.
An in-house wine bar and programme of cultural gatherings add to its residential character, encouraging visitors to remain in the space rather than simply pass through it.
Quarters demonstrates the growing appeal of experiential retail: an environment where visitors can understand not only what an object looks like, but how it contributes to the atmosphere and rhythm of a room.
Selected by Jessica Schuster. Continue exploring our New York Design Guide.
Just One Eye | Los Angeles, USA
Nookart Studio | Prague, Czech Republic
5. Just One Eye | Los Angeles, USA
Just One Eye occupies the territory between a luxury fashion boutique, art gallery and cultural platform.
Its Los Angeles space brings avant-garde fashion together with jewellery, furniture, artworks, rare editions and limited collaborations. Established fashion houses sit beside less familiar creative names, while objects from different disciplines are allowed to enter into conversation.
The selection is deliberately focused rather than comprehensive. Visitors come to understand what has captured the curators’ attention as much as they do to make a purchase.
This intelligence of edit gives Just One Eye its distinctive character. It presents fashion as part of a wider cultural world, connected to interiors, contemporary art, photography, craft and the continually shifting creative identity of Los Angeles.
Selected by Peti Lau. Continue exploring our Los Angeles Design Guide.
6. Nookart Studio | Prague, Czech Republic
Part apartment, part gallery, Nookart Studio presents contemporary art and collectible design within the intimacy of a lived interior.
Rather than isolating pieces against conventional white walls, the studio places furniture, sculpture and artworks in conversation with one another. The result feels personal and approachable, demonstrating how collectible pieces can become part of everyday life rather than objects to be admired only from a distance.
Set within Prague’s historic Langhans Palace, Nookart offers an alternative to the traditional gallery experience: quieter, more residential and shaped by the pleasure of encountering art in an unexpected setting.
Selected by Mila Zila. Continue exploring our Prague Design Guide.
WDLT117 | Toronto, Canada
CY | Miami, USA
7. WDLT117 | Toronto, Canada
Housed within a restored Victorian townhouse, WDLT117 approaches retail as an evolving journey through fashion, art, design and contemporary culture.
The store’s name draws on the idea of wanderlust, reflected in a collection shaped by international travel and the pleasure of encountering something unfamiliar. Fashion sits beside objects for the home, collectible pieces and work by emerging creative voices.
Its domestic setting gives the experience a sense of intimacy often missing from larger luxury stores. Visitors move through a sequence of rooms rather than a single retail floor, discovering objects gradually and observing how apparently different disciplines can coexist.
WDLT117 is less about following a particular trend than presenting a changing global perspective through a highly individual eye.
Selected by Mila Yudina. Continue exploring our Toronto Design Guide.
8. CY | Miami, USA
CY represents a new generation of Miami design retail: part showroom, part gallery and part creative meeting place.
Its collection focuses on furniture and crafted objects chosen for their material presence and emotional impact. Pieces from different periods are allowed to sit together, creating a conversation between historic references, contemporary makers and unexpected forms.
The interior is calm and architectural, giving each object enough space to be properly considered. In a city frequently associated with spectacle, CY offers something more measured, a destination built around curiosity, longevity and the belief that the objects we live with should carry meaning.
Selected by Samantha Gallacher of Art + Loom. Continue exploring our Miami Design Guide.
Different | Marrakech, Morocco
AKJP | Cape Town, South Africa
9. Different | Marrakech, Morocco
Within Marrakech’s medina, Different offers a contemporary counterpoint to the city’s traditional souks.
Founded in 2022, the concept store brings together clothing, accessories, ceramics, textiles and distinctive objects sourced from Moroccan and international creatives. Traditional techniques and local materials remain present, but they are interpreted through a bolder, more contemporary visual language.
The store is colourful, expressive and deliberately individual. Its strength lies in the way it allows craftsmanship and experimentation to coexist, presenting Moroccan creativity as something alive and continually evolving rather than fixed within a familiar decorative vocabulary.
Selected by Maison Toukkani. for the Designeers Marrakech Design Guide.
10. AKJP | Cape Town, South Africa
Founded by designers Keith Henning and Claudia Selzer, AKJP presents contemporary African craft and collectible objects within a calm, understated Cape Town setting.
Sculptural ceramics, lighting and smaller design pieces are chosen for their material presence and the individuality of their makers. Many of the objects sit comfortably between art and function, offering a contemporary interpretation of craft without separating it from everyday life.
The restrained interior allows texture, silhouette and hand-finished detail to come forward. Rather than overwhelming visitors with quantity, AKJP relies on the clarity of its selection.
It provides an important window into Cape Town’s wider creative ecosystem and the designers developing a confident contemporary language rooted in African making, experimentation and material knowledge.
Selected by Tristan du Plessis. Continue exploring our Cape Town Design Guide.
The Pleasure of Discovery
These stores differ in geography, scale and aesthetic, but each demonstrates the value of a strong curatorial point of view.
At a time when almost any object can be found online, physical retail must offer something more meaningful than convenience. The most successful concept stores create context. They allow us to understand who made an object, how it might be used and why it deserves our attention.
They also become portraits of their cities—revealing local materials, creative communities and cultural influences through the objects they choose to bring together.
Discover more galleries, artisans, architecture, hotels and independent design destinations through the Designeers Destination Guides.
COVER IMAGE: VEENUE, SHANGHAI
Explore all Destination Guides here.
