Manchester is a great shopping destination.  The Arndale Centre has all the regular high street outlets: Reiss, River Island, Hobbs, LK Bennet, Hollister, Warehouse, …  If you want to go more up-market, pop across to Exchange Square for Harvey Nicholls and Selfridges.

My personal favourite, though, is the quirky Northern Quarter where you’ll find smaller independent and one-off shops

Top of the quirky list has to be the Barberella-themed Pop Boutique at 34-36 Oldham Street.

Pop is vintage heaven, with a wide range of clothing plus furniture and home accessories.  There’s even a barber (barber-ella …) at the rear of the ground floor.

Just up the road at 22 Oldham Street is a small bookshop, Magma.  The emphasis is on art, design and fashion.  In reality, it’s much more than a bookshop: there are prints, mugs, bags, games.  It’s only small but it’s well-laid out, bright and vibrant, and has friendly and helpful staff.  There’s another branch in Covent Garden.

Another favourite is Thunderegg, right next door,  stocking an eclectic range of clothing and accessories.  It is clearly Japanese-inspired, with rows of Japanese collectibles on display, and products such as Hello Kitty and Tokidoki.  There’s a tempting range of on-trend clothes and accessories.  And what can I say about the vinyl heads?!

Just up the road at number 20 is Fig + Sparrow, which is always worth a quick visit to see their selection of homewares by local producers.  Better still, you can have a coffee while you’re there.

Updated version of an article previously published on Shop with Intent.

Linked to Monday Mellow Yellows, Our World Tuesday and Vintage Thingies Thursday.