The best boutiques for shopping in Mexico City

Juarez

Casa Caballeria

Best for: A menswear mecca
Address: Havre 64, Juárez, 06600, Mexico City

A three-storey gothic townhouse with dark wooden interiors and a vintage barber shop sets the scene for an artfully edited collection of menswear – from street to formal styles – and locally made leather shoes. The owners of Casa Caballeria are committed to stocking lines made by up-and-coming Mexican designers and they have tailors on-hand for hemming and alterations. A standout gift selection, including Moleskine notebooks and minimal kitchenware, completes the bill. Look out for local 2designers, often shopping in-store.

Utilitario Mexicano

Best for: Mexican home decor with a backstory
Address: Marsella 3a, Juárez, 06600, Mexico City

Utilitario Mexicano specialises in artisanal homeware, with reinterpretations of traditional domestic items. The store’s concept is a modern interpretation of a Mexican local market, set in an unusual space where Mexican craft meets chic minimalism. It houses more than 1000 products spanning furniture, tableware and interiors, all of which are made in small independent workshops across Mexico City. Pick up as many enamel cups, shot tumblers and woven bags as you can fit in your suitcase.

Carla Fernández

Best for: Womenswear
Address: Álvaro Obregón 200, Roma Norte, 06700, Mexico City
and Calle Marsella 72, Juárez, 06600, Mexico City

One of the city’s biggest design success stories, Carla Fernandez has boutiques in Roma Norte and Juarez as well as placement in some of Mexico’s best department stores. Fernández’s fashion line features androgynous shapes, cut from indigenous fabrics. Her modern Mexican couture is both understated and luxurious, employing traditional artisanal techniques. With a tagline of “fashion is not ephemeral” and a bias against fast fashion and clothing waste, the designer hits the mark in consciously creating clothing you’ll reach for time and again.

Roma

180º Shop

Best for: Conscious shoppers seeking local creativity
Address: Colima 180, Roma Norte, 06700, Mexico City

Focused on unusual, upscale clothing, jewellery, and shoes from Mexican designers, 180º Shop features a vintage jukebox in the corner and a checkout counter made of VHS tapes that provide a fun and retro feel. Open since 2011 and considered Mexico City’s first true concept store, this address is much-loved for its focus on sustainable fashion. Expect to find drapey and architectural clothing such as origami-like pleated skirts, paper bag trousers, and kimono-inspired jackets alongside collectible slogan t-shirts referencing life in Mexico City. Through its strong reputation, the shop has forged relationships with national museums and international brands to collaborate on capsule collections and individual pieces that can be found periodically on the site and in the store.

Happening Store

Best for: Homeware, clothing and gifts
Address: Tabasco 210, Roma Norte, 06700, Mexico City
and Madero 10C, San Ángel, 01000, Mexico City

Happening Store has a location in trendy Roma Norte and up-and-coming San Ángel (as well as the coastal city of Mérida). It offers a unique mix of pottery, coffee mugs, a smattering of clothing, and gifts that appeal to locals, expats, and tourists alike. With a focus on emerging Mexican makers and items that boast cute and clever Spanish and Spanglish phrases, this is the spot to stock up on bucket hats, candles, oversized sunglasses, statement earrings, and more.

Condesa

For All Folks

Best for: Cruelty-free cosmetics
Address: Zamora 19, Condesa, 06140, Mexico City

Stock up on cruelty-free and genderless beauty and body products and fragrances at this small but beautiful storefront in Condesa. Products use natural and soothing ingredients with a particular focus on calendula petals, as well as using refillable packaging. Wander through the light-filled space to sample products like an anti-aging gold mask, intensive super booster serum, and incense and moss perfume. The staff are knowledgeable and careful to ensure you get the best products for your skin.

San Miguel Chapultepec

Yakampot

Best for: Local style
Address: Salvatierra 45, San Miguel Chapultepec, 11850, Mexico City

This well-established boutique features clothing from sustainable fashion brand Concepción Orvañanos, noted for its flowing long robes, maxi dresses, and poet blouses, in a soothing neutral palette of white, mustard, and indigo. Stepping into this shop and studio at the edge of Condesa, visitors can sense the mood and feeling of the pieces. The designers consider dressing as a form of communication and consider clothing a means of discovering and expressing our emotions, and customers repeatedly come back for the high-quality craftsmanship and surprising designs.

Jardines del Pedregal

Tetetlán

Best for: A multi-purpose space designed by Luis Barragán
Address: Av. de Las Fuentes 180-B, Jardines del Pedregal, 01900, Mexico City

This multi-purpose destination for eating, drinking, wandering and shopping for gorgeous artisanal items is a must-visit stop. Housed in a plant-filled compound with a yoga and meditation studio, cafe, and volcanic rock garden, visitors can browse a range of items, including home decor, fragrance and clothing. Afterwards, have a look around the on-site architectural library featuring Mexican architect Luis Barragán’s collection of books. He designed this space in the 1940s and lived in its bright pink house, Casa Pedregal, until his passing in 1988. Tours of the home are available and worthwhile but must be booked in advance.

Polanco

Cafebrería el Péndulo

Best for: The most beautiful book shop in Mexico City 
Address: Alejandro Dumas 81, Polanco, 11560, Mexico City

Polanco is home to Mexico City’s most beautiful bookstore. Cafebrería el Péndulo has a smattering of locations across the city, but it’s the glamorous Polanco location that steals the show with soaring ceilings, a charming mezzanine, marble floors and curving staircase. Its selection of Spanish and English tomes includes everything from current bestsellers to academic volumes and picture books, alongside an array of unique literary gifts. After you’ve chosen your reading material, stroll outside to the bookstore’s cafe for coffee and decadent pastries.

Xinú Perfumes

Best for: Olfactory aficionados
Address: Alejandro Dumas 161, Polanco, 11560, Mexico City

Xinú Perfumes is one of Mexico City’s most unique shopping destinations. The city’s homegrown fragrance house incorporates notes of copal, subtle whiffs of agave, and other local scents that will transport you back to Mexico, encased in walnut wood-topped perfume bottles, alongside lotions, candles, and soaps. In an airy third-floor space in Polanco, the dramatic atmosphere reads more museum than perfumery and only adds to its allure. The shop’s expert scent guides offer insight into how and why the mixtures were created, making a browse of the shop an enriching experience.

Ikal

Best for: Unisex fashion from Mexican designers
Address: Masaryk 340, Polanco, 11550, Mexico City

This is the go-to shopping spot for beautifully made, unisex pieces from local Mexican designers. There is also a quirky in-house fragrance collection, which incorporates local ingredients to make scents such as ‘desert flowers’, ‘petate’, and ‘mud and chocolate’. Unique haberdashery, home items, bicycles, clothing, and shoes can also be found in the space, which has smooth concrete floors and simple wooden shelving to let the stock shine. We challenge you to walk out of this shop empty-handed.